3. RECEIVABLES PURCHASE FACILITY

In December 2001, the Company established a $100.0 million receivables purchase facility with CoBank, ACB (CoBank). A wholly-owned, unconsolidated special purpose entity (SPE) was established to purchase certain receivables from the Company. CoBank has been granted an interest in the pool of receivables owned by the SPE. The transfers of the receivables from the Company to the SPE are structured as sales and, accordingly, the receivables transferred to the SPE are not reflected in the consolidated balance sheet. However, the Company retains credit risk related to the repayment of the notes receivable with the SPE, which, in turn, is dependent upon the credit risk of the SPE's receivables pool. Accordingly, the Company has retained reserves for estimated losses. The Company expects no significant gains or losses from the facility. At December 31, 2002, no amounts were outstanding under this facility and $100.0 million remained available. The total accounts receivable sold during 2002 and 2001 were $2,653.0 million and $383.2 million, respectively.

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