Senior Notes

On May 7, 2008, we issued $275 million of senior notes in a private placement to a group of institutional investors (the “2008 Senior Notes”). The 2008 Senior Notes were issued in four series with maturities ranging from 5 to 10 years. The outstanding 2008 Senior Notes’ weighted average interest rate is 7.2% and the weighted average maturity is 10.0 years. On July 14, 2010, we issued $245 million of senior notes in a private placement to a group of institutional investors (the “2010 Senior Notes” and, with the 2008 Senior Notes, the “Senior Notes”). The 2010 Senior Notes were issued in four series with maturities ranging from 6 to 10 years. The outstanding 2010 Senior Notes’ weighted average interest rate is 5.4% and the weighted average maturity is 8.7 years. The Senior Notes require interest payments semi-annually and contain certain restrictive covenants, including the maintenance of consolidated net debt to consolidated EBITDA ratio and a fixed charge coverage ratio. The purchase agreements for the Senior Notes also contain certain covenants typical of unsecured facilities. As of March 31, 2017, we were in compliance with all financial covenants.

The following table presents the carrying amounts and fair values for the Senior Notes at March 31, 2017 and September 30, 2016:



	March 31, 2017						September 30, 2016
	Carrying Amounts			Fair Value			Carrying Amounts (1)			Fair Value (1)
	(In thousands)
The 2008 Senior Notes	$	131,000		$	136,675		$	131,000		$	139,902
The 2010 Senior Notes	185,000			191,669			185,000			195,715
Debt issuance costs	(280		)	(280		)	(376		)	(376		)
Total	$	315,720		$	328,064		$	315,624		$	335,241

(1) Balances as of September 30, 2016 have been recast as a result of the adoption of ASU 2015-03 to present debt issuance costs of $0.4 million as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of the Senior Notes.

We measure the fair value of the Senior Notes based on Level 2 inputs, which include quoted market prices and interest rate spreads of similar securities.