Pension fund deficits for 44 British firms in the FTSE 100 index fell to a combined %A3;34.5 billion ($66.9 billion) last month, compared with %A3;41 billion in March, said Stephen Baker, consulting actuary at Aon Consulting. He attributed the deficit reduction mainly to "largely favorable equity returns" and increased plan contributions.
Aon's research projected the total pension deficit of those 44 firms will drop to %A3;23.1 billion in five years and to %A3;8.6 billion over a decade. On average, the firms should have no pension shortfall and no surplus by 2016, he said.
Mr. Baker also noted that the companies allocate an average 60% of their pension assets to equities, 33% of assets to bonds and 7% to real estate or other investments.
The firm collected data on U.K. plan sponsors that had pension benefit obligations of more than %A3;1 billion.
