GE Unveils Pension Plan Changes Aimed at Paring Deficit, Debt Load

By Colin Kellaher 

General Electric Co. on Monday unveiled a series of changes to its pension plans aimed at cutting the conglomerate's pension deficit by up to $8 billion and its net debt by up to $6 billion.

GE said it plans to freeze its U.S. pension plan for roughly 20,000 employees with salaried benefits, along with U.S. supplementary pension benefits for about 700 employees who became executives before 2011.

The freeze, effective Jan. 1, 2021, won't affect retirees already collecting pension benefits or employees with production benefits, GE said, adding that it will record a noncash, pretax curtailment charge on the move in the fourth quarter.

GE closed its pension plan to new entrants at the start of 2012.

The company also said it plans to pre-fund $4 billion to $5 billion of its estimated minimum funding requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or Erisa, for 2021 and 2022 using part of the roughly $38 billion it is netting from divestitures.

GE also said it would offer lump-sum payments to about 100,000 former employees who haven't started collecting monthly pension payments, adding that those distributions will come from existing pension plan assets.

GE said it expects the moves will reduce its pension deficit by about $5 billion to $8 billion and pare its net debt by $4 billion to $6 billion.

Shares of GE, which closed Friday at $8.57, rose 2.6% in premarket trading Monday.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 07, 2019 07:36 ET (11:36 GMT)

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