General Motors to shift $570 million to pension plans

General Motors Co., Detroit, plans to contribute about $500 million to its non-U.S. pension plans in 2020, the auto company disclosed Wednesday in a 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company also disclosed it plans to contribute about $70 million to its U.S. plans. In 2019, GM contributed $532 million to its non-U.S. plans and $83 million to its U.S. plans.

Looking ahead, GM said that "over the next five years we expect no significant mandatory contributions to our U.S. qualified pension plans and mandatory contributions totaling $368 million to our U.K. and Canada pension plans."

The U.S. pension plans' discount rate as of Dec. 31 was 3.2%, down from 4.2% the previous year, while the discount rate for the non-U.S. plans was 2.2%, down from 2.9% the previous year.

As of Dec. 31, U.S. pension plan assets totaled $59.2 billion, while projected benefit obligations totaled $64.7 billion, for a funding ratio of 91.5%, down slightly from 91.7% a year earlier. Non-U.S. pension plan assets as of Dec. 31 totaled $15 billion, while projected benefit obligations totaled $21.4 billion, for a funding ratio of 70%, up from 68% a year earlier.

The target allocation for the U.S. plans is 64% fixed income, 24% absolute return/private equity/real estate and 12% equities, while the non-U.S. plans' target allocation is 67% fixed income, 19% absolute return/private equity/real estate and 14% equities.