Newell Rubbermaid makes second lump-sum offer

Newell Rubbermaid Inc., Atlanta, announced in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday that it will send a lump-sum offer to about 3,300 former employees who have vested in the company's pension plan but who have yet to retire.

The projected benefit obligations of the former employees total about $120 million, or around 13% of the company's total liabilities, according to the 8-K filing.

It is the second such offering the company has made in as many years. In September 2014, Newell Rubbermaid announced it would make a lump-sum offer to about 5,700 former employees, also vested and yet to retire. At the time, the company said the population represented about $200 million, or about 20% of its total pension liabilities.

In the company's most recent 10-K filing, in December, Newell Rubbermaid made cash payments of $98.6 million to participants who accepted that offer.

How those two groups of participants differ could not be learned by press time.

As of Dec. 31, the company's U.S. pension plans had $752 million in assets and $1.06 billion in projected benefit obligations, for a funding ratio of 70.9%. Since the beginning of the year, the company has made voluntary contributions of $70 million to the U.S. plans.

Rob Kozlowski writes for Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Business Insurance.