Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Related Party Transactions

v3.10.0.1
Related Party Transactions
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2018
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]  
Related Party Transactions
RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
The Company owns a 60% controlling interest in a joint venture formed with Swire, which is a related party. The joint venture arrangement involves Transition Services Agreements ("TSAs") with Swire, under which Swire provides administrative and information technology services to the joint venture. The Company continues to reduce its costs under the TSAs as it internalizes the back-office functions and related personnel, including the transition of the joint venture's systems to the Company's enterprise resource planning ("ERP") platform in the second quarter of 2017. The joint venture incurred service fees, valued under the TSAs at Swire's cost, of approximately $72,000 and $90,000 during the three months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively, and approximately $216,000 and $935,000 during the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively. These fees are included in SG&A expenses in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations.
As of September 30, 2018 and 2017, and December 31, 2017, net payables to Swire for service fees, interest expense and miscellaneous expenses totaled approximately $83,000, $87,000 and $89,000, respectively, and were included in Accounts payable in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.
In addition to the transactions described above, Swire is also a third-party distributor of the Company's brands in certain regions outside of mainland China and purchases products from the Company under the Company's standard third-party distributor terms and pricing.
The China joint venture declared a cash dividend of approximately RMB 341,347,000 (approximately US$53,330,000) in June 2018 to stockholders of record as of June 14, 2018 and paid such dividend in the third quarter of 2018. The Company's dividend share of approximately $31,998,000 was received in the third quarter and was eliminated in consolidation. In addition, in September 2018, the Company and Swire entered into an Equity Interest Transfer Agreement ("EITA"), in which the Company commits to buy out the 40% non-controlling interest in the joint venture. The buyout is subject to various terms and conditions, including regulatory approval in China and is expected to be completed in early 2019. As part of the buyout arrangement, the Company has placed approximately $13,970,000 in an escrow account as a portion of the funds needed to complete the buyout in 2019.