Pension buyouts

A group of senior pilots at American Airlines on Monday asked the judge overseeing parent AMR Corp's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to withhold approval of a new labor agreement that would eliminate the option of lump-sum retirement payouts.

General Motors UK Ltd. entered into a £230 million ($371 million) pension buy-in annuity contract with Rothesay Life to secure the pension benefits of all participants in the General Motors UK Retirees Pension Plan.

Timken Co. plans to contribute about $100 million a year to its defined benefit pension plans in 2013 and 2014 as part of an overall effort to prepare the plans for a partial pension buyout.

A U.S. District Court judge in Dallas on Friday denied issuing a preliminary injunction to block a pension annuity transaction by Verizon Communications Inc. with Prudential Insurance Co. of America.

The roughly 30% of eligible salaried retirees who have accepted General Motors Co.'s offer to convert their monthly annuity to a lump sum benefit is a solid response to the trailblazing approach that other companies are expected to follow, observers say.

General Motors Co. reported Wednesday that about 30% of eligible salaried retirees accepted the automaker's lump-sum pension offer.

Verizon Communications Inc. purchased an annuity contract with Prudential Insurance Co. of America for about 25% of its pension liabilities just when demand in the high-quality corporate bond market is starting to supplant supply in a low interest-rate environment.

Kimberly-Clark Corp., Dallas, is offering lump-sum payments to 10,000 former employees with deferred vested benefits from the company's frozen defined benefit plan, according to the company's third-quarter earnings statement released Wednesday.

The Pension Rights Center wants Congress to impose a moratorium on derisking moves by corporate defined benefit plans, including lump-sum buyouts and annuity contracts, while the impact on retirees is studied.

Verizon Communications Inc., New York, will close its defined benefit plans for union employees to new hires and place them exclusively in the company's 401(k) plan, as part of tentative contracts with the Communication Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers unions.

Verizon Communications Inc., New York, will purchase a group annuity contract with Prudential Insurance Co. of America to transfer $7.5 billion in pension obligations, according to an 8-K filed Wednesday afternoon.