E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Del., expects to contribute $230 million to its main U.S. defined benefit plan in 2017, the company announced in its 10-K filing on Thursday.
It also expects to contribute $95 million to other pension plans. Further information was not available on those plans.DuPont contributed the same amount in 2016 to the main U.S. plan, following two years of no contributions, according to the filing. It also contributed another $121 million to other DB plans in 2016.DuPont closed its U.S. defined benefit plan to new employees in January 2007, and announced last November that it is freezing the plan as of Nov. 30, 2018. The November filing said that freezing pension and other benefits will reduce DuPont’s benefit obligation by an estimated $550 million. In the quarter ended Dec. 31, DuPont paid $550 million in lump-sum payouts to former vested participants in the main U.S. pension plan. The offer was made in September.
According to the latest 10-K filing, assets for all pension plans totaled $16.6 billion as of Dec. 31, and liabilities totaled $24.3 billion, for a funding ratio of 68.3%. Assets totaled $17.2 billion and liabilities, $24.9 billion, at the end of 2015.
All pension plan assets in the U.S. are invested through a single master trust fund. In 2016, the target allocation was 33% fixed income, 27% U.S. equities, 24% global equities, 8% private funds, 4% real estate, 2% hedge funds and 2% cash.
