TRW Automotive Holdings agrees to annuity buyout with MetLife for U.S. retirees
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TRW Automotive Holdings Inc., Livonia, Michigan, purchased a group annuity contract from MetLife Inc. in a $440 million transaction to provide pension benefits to more than 7,000 TRW retirees and beneficiaries, said Shelly Iacobelli, director, pensions and benefits, in an email.
Ms. Iacobelli did not immediately provide further information. A MetLife news release on Tuesday announced it will take over benefit payments to a total of 7,045 retirees and beneficiaries as a result of the transaction.
The U.S. buyout comes on the heels of the November agreement by the TRW Pension Scheme, Solihull, England, to a £2.5 billion ($3.9 billion) partial buyout with Legal & General Assurance Society.
The U.S. buyout is the latest move in TRW's ongoing pension risk transfer transactions. The company offered lump sums in 2012 to about 21,000 retirees and terminated vested participants, of which about 50% accepted, in its salaried plan; in 2013, the company offered another 4,300 active participants a lump-sum opportunity, according to a 10-K filing.
As of Dec. 31, 2013, the company's U.S. defined benefit plans had $695 million in assets and $769 million in projected benefit obligations, for a funding ratio of 90.4%, according to the 10-K.
Rob Kozlowski writes for Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Business Insurance.
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