Kraft Foods Group Inc., Northfield, Ill., plans to contribute a total of $200 million to its U.S. and Canadian defined benefit pension funds this year, according to a transcript of the firm's fourth-quarter earnings call.
The expected contribution is a significant decrease from $600 million last year and was lower than previous expectations for 2014, said Teri List-Stoll, executive vice president and chief financial officer in the earnings call. The pension funds were 96% funded at the end of 2013, up from 77% a year earlier.
Of the $200 million in contributions, $60 million will go to Canadian plans and $140 million to U.S. plans. Asset sizes of the individual plans were not made available.
Kraft had $5.9 billion in pension assets as of Sept. 30, according to a Pensions & Investments estimate.
