The PBGC has taken over pension plans sponsored by a New Jersey hospital and a commercial photography company.
The pension plan sponsored by Jersey City, N.J.-based Christ Hospital, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February and whose assets will be acquired by another health-care system, has $67 million in assets and $159 million in liabilities. The PBGC will guarantee $89 million of the $92 million shortfall.
In addition, the PBGC announced this week that it has taken over a pension plan sponsored by commercial photographer Olan Mills Inc., Chattanooga, Tenn. Olan Mills, which the PBGC said suffered financially due to the shift from film to digital formats, last year sold the majority of its assets to Lifetouch, which did not assume Olan Mills’ pension plan.
The Olan Mills’ plan has $101.9 million in assets and $143.1 million in liabilities. The PBGC said it is responsible for the entire $41.2 million funding shortfall.
The $89 million loss from the Christ Hospital takeover is the PBGC’s biggest in fiscal 2012. The agency’s biggest loss in fiscal 2011 also involved a health-care system. Last year, the PBGC took over a pension plan sponsored by Forum Health Inc., a Youngstown, Ohio-based hospital and health care system that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2009 and has since sold off its assets. That PBGC takeover of the Forum Health plan cost the agency about $150 million.
Jerry Geisel is editor-at-large at Business Insurance, a sister publication of Pensions & Investments
