Funding of General Motors Co.'s pension plans has improved slightly since the end of last year, but its unfunded pension liabilities remain massive, according to a Wednesday filing with the SEC.
In a registration statement filed prior to the Detroit-based company's intent to issue new shares later this year, GM disclosed that its pension plans were underfunded by $26.3 billion as of June 30 — $16.7 billion for its U.S. plans and $9.6 billion for non-U.S. plans.
That's a slight improvement from the end of last year, when the plans had unfunded liabilities of $17.1 billion for U.S. plans and $10.3 billion for non-U.S. plans.
According to an April analysis by pension actuarial consultant Milliman, GM's $27.4 billion in unfunded pension liabilities at the end of 2009 was the largest deficit of the 100 biggest pension programs sponsored by publicly held companies, followed by Ford Motor Co., whose plans had about $12 billion in unfunded liabilities.
GM had $98.5 billion in worldwide plan assets as of Dec. 31, according to its SEC filing on Wednesday.
Jerry Geisel writes for Business Insurance, a sister publication of Pensions & Investments.
