we cannot assure you that the gener restructuring will be completed or that the terms thereof will not be changed materially .in addition , gener is in the process of restructuring the debt of its subsidiaries , termoandes s.a .( 2018 2018termoandes 2019 2019 ) and interandes , s.a .( 2018 2018interandes 2019 2019 ) , and expects that the maturities of these obligations will be extended .under-performing businesses during 2003 we sold or discontinued under-performing businesses and construction projects that did not meet our investment criteria or did not provide reasonable opportunities to restructure .it is anticipated that there will be less ongoing activity related to write-offs of development or construction projects and impairment charges in the future .the businesses , which were affected in 2003 , are listed below .impairment project name project type date location ( in millions ) .
[['project name', 'project type', 'date', 'location', 'impairment ( in millions )'], ['ede este ( 1 )', 'operating', 'december 2003', 'dominican republic', '$ 60'], ['wolf hollow', 'operating', 'december 2003', 'united states', '$ 120'], ['granite ridge', 'operating', 'december 2003', 'united states', '$ 201'], ['colombia i', 'operating', 'november 2003', 'colombia', '$ 19'], ['zeg', 'construction', 'december 2003', 'poland', '$ 23'], ['bujagali', 'construction', 'august 2003', 'uganda', '$ 76'], ['el faro', 'construction', 'april 2003', 'honduras', '$ 20']]
( 1 ) see note 4 2014discontinued operations .improving credit quality our de-leveraging efforts reduced parent level debt by $ 1.2 billion in 2003 ( including the secured equity-linked loan previously issued by aes new york funding l.l.c. ) .we refinanced and paid down near-term maturities by $ 3.5 billion and enhanced our year-end liquidity to over $ 1 billion .our average debt maturity was extended from 2009 to 2012 .at the subsidiary level we continue to pursue limited recourse financing to reduce parent credit risk .these factors resulted in an overall reduced cost of capital , improved credit statistics and expanded access to credit at both aes and our subsidiaries .liquidity at the aes parent level is an important factor for the rating agencies in determining whether the company 2019s credit quality should improve .currency and political risk tend to be biggest variables to sustaining predictable cash flow .the nature of our large contractual and concession-based cash flow from these businesses serves to mitigate these variables .in 2003 , over 81% ( 81 % ) of cash distributions to the parent company were from u.s .large utilities and worldwide contract generation .on february 4 , 2004 , we called for redemption of $ 155049000 aggregate principal amount of outstanding 8% ( 8 % ) senior notes due 2008 , which represents the entire outstanding principal amount of the 8% ( 8 % ) senior notes due 2008 , and $ 34174000 aggregate principal amount of outstanding 10% ( 10 % ) secured senior notes due 2005 .the 8% ( 8 % ) senior notes due 2008 and the 10% ( 10 % ) secured senior notes due 2005 were redeemed on march 8 , 2004 at a redemption price equal to 100% ( 100 % ) of the principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest to the redemption date .the mandatory redemption of the 10% ( 10 % ) secured senior notes due 2005 was being made with a portion of our 2018 2018adjusted free cash flow 2019 2019 ( as defined in the indenture pursuant to which the notes were issued ) for the fiscal year ended december 31 , 2003 as required by the indenture and was made on a pro rata basis .on february 13 , 2004 we issued $ 500 million of unsecured senior notes .the unsecured senior notes mature on march 1 , 2014 and are callable at our option at any time at a redemption price equal to 100% ( 100 % ) of the principal amount of the unsecured senior notes plus a make-whole premium .the unsecured senior notes were issued at a price of 98.288% ( 98.288 % ) and pay interest semi-annually at an annual .

Question: how many years was the average debt maturity extended for?
Answer: 3