Financial report context:
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 ) .

Financial table:
project name: ede este ( 1 ); project type: operating; date: december 2003; location: dominican republic; impairment ( in millions ): $ 60
project name: wolf hollow; project type: operating; date: december 2003; location: united states; impairment ( in millions ): $ 120
project name: granite ridge; project type: operating; date: december 2003; location: united states; impairment ( in millions ): $ 201
project name: colombia i; project type: operating; date: november 2003; location: colombia; impairment ( in millions ): $ 19
project name: zeg; project type: construction; date: december 2003; location: poland; impairment ( in millions ): $ 23
project name: bujagali; project type: construction; date: august 2003; location: uganda; impairment ( in millions ): $ 76
project name: el faro; project type: construction; date: april 2003; location: honduras; impairment ( in millions ): $ 20

Additional report context:
( 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