The Company is exposed to certain risks arising from both its business operations and economic conditions. The Company principally manages its exposures to a wide variety of business and operational risks through management of its core business activities. The Company manages economic risks, including interest rate, liquidity, and credit risk, primarily by managing the amount, sources, and duration of its debt funding and through the use of derivative financial instruments. Specifically, the Company may enter into derivative financial instruments to manage exposures that arise from business activities that result in the receipt or payment of future known and uncertain cash amounts, the value of which are determined by interest rates. The Company’s derivative financial instruments are used to manage differences in the amount, timing, and duration of the Company’s known or expected cash receipts and its known or expected cash payments principally related to the Company’s investments and borrowings.

The Company’s objectives in using interest rate derivatives are to add stability to interest expense and to manage its exposure to interest rate movements. To accomplish this objective, the Company primarily uses interest rate swaps and caps as part of its interest rate risk management strategy. Interest rate swaps designated as cash flow hedges involve the receipt of variable-rate amounts from a counterparty in exchange for the Company making fixed-rate payments over the life of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount. Interest rate caps designated as cash flow hedges involve the receipt of variable-rate amounts from a counterparty if interest rates rise above the strike rate on the contract in exchange for an up-front premium.

The changes in the fair value of derivatives designated and that qualify as cash flow hedges are recorded in Accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss), net on the Consolidated Balance Sheets and subsequently reclassified into earnings in the period that the hedged forecasted transaction affects earnings. During the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018, and 2017, such derivatives were used to hedge the variable cash flows associated with existing variable-rate debt.

During the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company recognized a loss of $0.1 million, reclassified from Accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss), net to Interest expense due to the de-designation of a cash flow hedge. No amounts were de-designated during the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018.

Amounts reported in Accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss), net on the Consolidated Balance Sheets related to derivatives that will be reclassified to interest expense as interest payments are made on the Company’s variable-rate debt. Through December 31, 2020, the Company estimates that an additional $1.7 million will be reclassified as a decrease to Interest expense.

As of December 31, 2019, the Company had the following outstanding interest rate derivatives that were designated as cash flow hedges of interest rate risk (dollars in thousands):

(a)

In addition to the interest rate swaps summarized above, the Company entered into an additional interest rate swap with a notional value of $315.0 million that will become effective in January 2020 upon the maturity of the interest rate swaps summarized above. Additionally, the Company had previously entered into two additional interest rate swaps with a notional value totaling $75.0 million that were subsequently terminated and settled during the year ended December 31, 2019 in conjunction with the July 2019 issuance of $300.0 million of senior unsecured medium-term notes as disclosed in Note 7, Secured and Unsecured, Net.

Derivatives not designated as hedges are not speculative and are used to manage the Company’s exposure to interest rate movements and other identified risks but do not meet the strict hedge accounting requirements of GAAP. Changes in the fair value of derivatives not designated in hedging relationships are recorded directly in earnings and

resulted in no gain or loss for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, and a loss of less than $0.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017.

As of December 31, 2019, the Company had the following outstanding derivatives that were not designated as hedges in qualifying hedging relationships (dollars in thousands):


	Number of
Product	Instruments	Notional
Interest rate caps	1	$	19,880

Tabular Disclosure of Fair Values of Derivative Instruments on the Consolidated Balance Sheet

The table below presents the fair value of the Company’s derivative financial instruments as well as their classification on the Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2019 and 2018 (dollars in thousands):

Asset Derivatives

Liability Derivatives

(included in Other assets)

(included in Other liabilities)

Fair Value at:

December 31,

2019

2018

2019

2018

Derivatives designated as hedging instruments:

Interest rate products

4,757

142

356

Tabular Disclosure of the Effect of Derivative Instruments on the Consolidated Statements of Operations

The tables below present the effect of the Company’s derivative financial instruments on the Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018, and 2017 (dollars in thousands):


													Gain/(Loss) Recognized in
							Gain/(Loss) Reclassified						Interest expense
	Unrealized holding gain/(loss)						from Accumulated OCI into						(Amount Excluded from
	Recognized in OCI						Interest expense						Effectiveness Testing)
Derivatives in Cash Flow Hedging Relationships	2019		2018		2017		2019		2018		2017		2019		2018		2017

Interest rate products	$	(8,437)	$	4,806	$	1,802	$	2,770	$	1,948	$	(1,271)	$	—	$	—	$	(136)


	Year Ended
	December 31,
	2019		2018		2017
Total amount of Interest expense presented on the Consolidated Statements of Operations	$	170,917	$	134,168	$	128,711


	Gain/(Loss) Recognized in
	Interest income and other income/(expense), net
Derivatives Not Designated as Hedging Instruments	2019		2018		2017

Interest rate products	$	—	$	—	(1)

Credit-risk-related Contingent Features

The Company has agreements with its derivative counterparties that contain a provision where the Company could be declared in default on its derivative obligations if repayment of the underlying indebtedness is accelerated by the lender due to the Company’s default on the indebtedness.

The Company has certain agreements with some of its derivative counterparties that contain a provision where, in the event of default by the Company or the counterparty, the right of setoff may be exercised. Any amount payable to one party by the other party may be reduced by its setoff against any amounts payable by the other party. Events that

give rise to default by either party may include, but are not limited to, the failure to pay or deliver payment under the derivative agreement, the failure to comply with or perform under the derivative agreement, bankruptcy, a merger without assumption of the derivative agreement, or in a merger, a surviving entity’s creditworthiness is materially weaker than the original party to the derivative agreement.

As of December 31, 2019, the fair value of derivatives was in a net asset position, which includes accrued interest but excludes any adjustment for nonperformance risk related to these agreements, of less than $0.1 million.

Tabular Disclosure of Offsetting Derivatives

The Company has elected not to offset derivative positions on the consolidated financial statements. The tables below present the effect on its financial position had the Company made the election to offset its derivative positions as of December 31, 2019 and 2018 (dollars in thousands):


			Gross		Net Amounts of		Gross Amounts Not Offset
			Amounts		Assets		in the Consolidated
	Gross		Offset in the		Presented in the		Balance Sheet
	Amounts of		Consolidated		Consolidated				Cash
	Recognized		Balance		Balance Sheets		Financial		Collateral
Offsetting of Derivative Assets	Assets		Sheets		(a)		Instruments		Received		Net Amount
December 31, 2019	$	6	$	—	$	6	$	(3)	$	—	$	3

December 31, 2018	$	4,757	$	—	$	4,757	$	—	$	—	$	4,757

(a)	Amounts reconcile to the aggregate fair value of derivative assets in the “Tabular Disclosure of Fair Values of Derivative Instruments on the Consolidated Balance Sheets” located in this footnote.

Gross

Net Amounts of

Gross Amounts Not Offset

Amounts

Liabilities

in the Consolidated

Gross

Offset in the

Presented in the

Balance Sheet

Amounts of

Consolidated

Cash

Recognized

Balance

Balance Sheets

Financial

Collateral

Offsetting of Derivative Liabilities

Liabilities

Sheets

(a)

Instruments

Posted

Net Amount

December 31, 2019

142

—

142

(3)

—

139

December 31, 2018

356

—

356

—

356

(a)

Amounts reconcile to the aggregate fair value of derivative liabilities in the “Tabular Disclosure of Fair Values of Derivative Instruments on the Consolidated Balance Sheets” located in this footnote.