Alliance Holdings GP, L.P. Reports Quarterly and Full Year Financial Results; Maintains Quarterly Distribution of $0.96 Per Unit

Alliance Holdings GP, L.P. (NASDAQ: AHGP) today announced that the Board
of Directors of its general partner (the "Board") approved a
distribution to unitholders for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 (the
"2015 Quarter") of $0.96 per unit, or an annualized rate of $3.84 per
unit, payable on February 19, 2016 to AHGP’s unitholders of record as of
the close of trading on February 12, 2016. The declared quarterly cash
distribution represents a 4.9% increase over the cash distribution of
$0.915 per unit for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 (the "2014
Quarter") and is equal to the cash distribution for the quarter ended
September 30, 2015.

AHGP’s principal sources of cash flow are its ownership of general
partner interests, limited partner interests and incentive distribution
rights in Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ: ARLP). The declared
distribution is based on the distribution AHGP will receive from its
ownership interests in ARLP, which today announced a quarterly
distribution for the 2015 Quarter of $0.675 per unit, or $2.70 per unit
on an annualized basis, payable on February 12, 2016 to all unitholders
of record as of the close of trading on February 5, 2016. (See ARLP
Press Release dated January 26, 2016, the "ARLP Release").

Operating results for AHGP reflect those of the operating subsidiaries
of ARLP and, as a result, AHGP reports its financial results on a
consolidated basis with the financial results of ARLP. Consolidated net
income includes earnings and losses attributable to both AHGP and
non-controlling interests. Unless otherwise noted, any reference to net
income in this release represents Net Income Attributable to AHGP.

AHGP reported net income for the 2015 Quarter of $28.7 million, or net
income per basic and diluted limited partner interest of $0.48 per unit,
a decrease of 59.6% compared to net income for the 2014 Quarter of $71.0
million, or $1.19 per basic and diluted limited partner unit. For the
year ended December 31, 2015, AHGP reported net income of $211.3
million, or $3.53 per basic and diluted limited partner unit, a decrease
of 25.7% compared to $284.4 million, or $4.75 per basic and diluted
limited partner unit, earned in the year ended December 31, 2014.

As noted in the ARLP Release, results for the 2015 Quarter and Year were
impacted by a number of non-cash items, including asset impairment
charges of $89.4 million and $100.1 million in 2015 Quarter and Year,
respectively, and net gains of $22.5 million related to ARLP’s
accounting for the White Oak Acquisition resulting from the final
business combination accounting for the transaction. Excluding these
non-cash items, net of the amounts attributable to noncontrolling
interests, adjusted Net Income Attributable to AHGP for the 2015 Quarter
was $57.5 million, a decrease of 19.0% compared to the 2014 Quarter, and
adjusted Net Income Attributable to AHGP for the 2015 Year of $244.7
million, a decrease of 13.9% compared to the 2014 Year. (For a
discussion of Adjusted Net Income Attributable to AHGP and a related
reconciliation to the comparable financial measure under accounting
principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP"), please see
the end of this release.)

Based on ARLP’s current declared distribution, AHGP expects to receive
quarterly cash distributions from ARLP of $58.4 million, or $233.6
million on an annualized basis. AHGP’s primary cash requirements are for
working capital, distributions to its unitholders and general and
administrative expenses, including for 2016 an estimated $2.1 million in
general and administrative expenses.

AHGP and ARLP will discuss their 2015 Quarter financial results during a
joint conference call scheduled for today at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. To
participate in the conference call, dial (855) 793-3259 and provide
passcode 18774166. International callers should dial (631) 485-4928 and
provide the same passcode number. Investors may also listen to the call
via the "investor information" section of ARLP’s website at http://www.arlp.com
or AHGP’s website at http://www.ahgp.com.

An audio replay of the conference call will be available for
approximately one week. To access the audio replay, dial (855) 859-2056
and provide passcode number 18774166. International callers should dial
(404) 537-3406 and provide the same passcode number.

This announcement is intended to be a qualified notice under Treasury
Regulation Section 1.1446-4(b), with 100% of the partnership’s
distributions to foreign investors attributable to income that is
effectively connected with a United States trade or business.
Accordingly, AHGP’s distributions to foreign investors are subject to
federal income tax withholding at the highest applicable tax rate.

About Alliance Holdings GP, L.P.

AHGP is a limited partnership formed to own and control Alliance
Resource Management GP, LLC, the managing general partner of Alliance
Resource Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ: ARLP), through which it holds a 1.98%
general partner interest and the incentive distribution rights in ARLP.
In addition, AHGP owns 31,088,338 common units of ARLP.

News, unit prices and additional information about AHGP including
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, are available at http://www.ahgp.com.
For more information, contact the investor relations department of
Alliance Holdings GP, L.P. at (918) 295-1415 or via e-mail at investorrelations@ahgp.com.

The statements and projections used throughout this release are based on
current expectations. These statements and projections are
forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially. These
projections do not include the potential impact of any mergers,
acquisitions or other business combinations that may occur after the
date of this release. At the end of this release, we have included more
information regarding business risks that could affect our results.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: With the exception of historical
matters, any matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking
statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from projected results. These risks,
uncertainties and contingencies include, but are not limited to, the
following: changes in competition in coal markets and the ARLP
Partnership's ability to respond to such changes; changes in coal
prices, which could affect the ARLP Partnership's operating results and
cash flows; risks associated with the ARLP Partnership's expansion of
its operations and properties; legislation, regulations, and court
decisions and interpretations thereof, including those relating to the
environment, mining, miner health and safety and health care;
deregulation of the electric utility industry or the effects of any
adverse change in the coal industry, electric utility industry, or
general economic conditions; dependence on significant customer
contracts, including renewing customer contracts upon expiration of
existing contracts; changing global economic conditions or in industries
in which the ARLP Partnership’s customers operate; liquidity
constraints, including those resulting from any future unavailability of
financing; customer bankruptcies, cancellations or breaches to existing
contracts, or other failures to perform; customer delays, failure to
take coal under contracts or defaults in making payments; adjustments
made in price, volume or terms to existing coal supply agreements;
fluctuations in coal demand, prices and availability; the ARLP
Partnership's productivity levels and margins earned on its coal sales;
changes in raw material costs; changes in the availability of skilled
labor; the ARLP Partnership's ability to maintain satisfactory relations
with its employees; increases in labor costs, adverse changes in work
rules, or cash payments or projections associated with post-mine
reclamation and workers' compensation claims; increases in
transportation costs and risk of transportation delays or interruptions;
operational interruptions due to geologic, permitting, labor,
weather-related or other factors; risks associated with major
mine-related accidents, such as mine fires, or interruptions; results of
litigation, including claims not yet asserted; difficulty maintaining
the ARLP Partnership's surety bonds for mine reclamation as well as
workers' compensation and black lung benefits; difficulty in making
accurate assumptions and projections regarding pension, black lung
benefits and other post-retirement benefit liabilities; the coal
industry's share of electricity generation, including as a result of
environmental concerns related to coal mining and combustion and the
cost and perceived benefits of other sources of electricity, such as
natural gas, nuclear energy and renewable fuels; uncertainties in
estimating and replacing the ARLP Partnership’s coal reserves; a loss or
reduction of benefits from certain tax deductions and credits;
difficulty obtaining commercial property insurance, and risks associated
with the ARLP Partnership's participation (excluding any applicable
deductible) in the commercial insurance property program; and difficulty
in making accurate assumptions and projections regarding future revenues
and costs associated with equity investments in companies we do not
control.

Additional information concerning these and other factors can be
found in AHGP’s public periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission ("SEC"), including AHGP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 27, 2015 and AHGP’s
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2015,
June 30, 2015 and September 30, 2015, filed on May 8, 2015, August 6,
2015 and November 6, 2015, respectively, with the SEC. Except as
required by applicable securities laws, AHGP does not intend to update
its forward-looking statements.

Reconciliation of GAAP “Net Income Attributable
to AHGP” to non-GAAP “Adjusted Net Income Attributable to AHGP”

Adjusted Net income Attributable to AHGP is defined as Net Income
Attributable to AHGP modified for certain items that may not reflect the
trend of future results, such as non-cash impairments and gains and
losses on acquisition related accounting.

Adjusted Net Income Attributable to AHGP should not be considered as an
alternative to Net Income Attributable to AHGP or any other measure of
financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted Net
Income Attributable to AHGP excludes certain items that management
believes affect the comparability of our operating results. This
adjusted financial measure is used by our management and external users
of our financial statements, such as investors, commercial banks,
research analysts and others, to assess:

• our operational trends and performance relative to other coal
  companies;
• the comparability of our performance to earnings estimates provided by
  security analysts; and
• our performance excluding items which are generally nonrecurring in
  nature or whose timing or amount cannot be reasonably estimated.

We believe Adjusted Net Income Attributable to AHGP is a useful measure
for investors because it further demonstrates our financial performance
without regard to items that may not reflect the trend of future results.

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