Pinnacle West charges up $300 million in contributions through 2019

Pinnacle West Capital Corp., Phoenix, plans to make voluntary contributions to its U.S. pension plan totaling $300 million during the three years through 2019, the company disclosed in a 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pinnacle West said in the Feb. 24 filing the total minimum funding requirement for the three years is zero, and did not specify how much it will contribute in 2017, 2018 or 2019. The company contributed $100 million each to the plan in 2016 and 2015.

As of Dec. 31, pension plan assets totaled $2.675 billion, while projected benefit obligations totaled $3.204 billion, for a funding ratio of 83.5%, down slightly from 83.8% in 2015. The plan's discount rate dropped to 4.08% in 2016, down from 4.37% in 2015.

As of Dec. 31, the plan's actual allocation was 53.3% fixed income, 28.2% equities, 7.8% partnerships, 6% real estate, 4.2% short-term investments and other, and 0.5% cash and cash equivalents.