Energy Future Holdings Corp., Dallas, in October will offer a lump-sum payment to about one-third of its employees in the defined benefit plan, confirmed spokesman Allan Koenig.
About 2,000 employees will have 30 days to accept the lump sum or receive annuity payments from an insurance company, which has not been selected yet, Mr. Koenig said in a telephone interview.
The offer applies only to certain employees of Energy Future Holdings Corp. and its Luminant and TXU Energy subsidiaries.
Energy Future Holdings officials are negotiating with an additional 1,000 union employees that would be eligible for the offer as well.
Oncor Electric Delivery employees, which make up about two-thirds of the pension plan, are not affected by the announcement, Mr. Koenig said. Oncor Electric is another subsidiary of Energy Future. The pension plan will continue to exist as is for those employees.
The company also will contribute $200 million in the fourth quarter of this year to fully fund the portion of the pension plan that will be affected.
The DB plan was closed to new hires in 2002, and a cash balance plan was closed in 2007. The pension plan had about $2.4 billion in assets as of Dec. 31 with a funded status of 72.3%, according to the company's 10-K.
