Pension and Post-employment Benefits |
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Pension and Post-employment Benefits | Note 9. Pension and Post-employment Benefits
United Kingdom plan
The Company maintains a defined benefit pension plan (the “Plan”) covering a number of its current and former employees in the United Kingdom, although it does also have other much smaller pension arrangements in the U.S. and overseas. The Plan is closed to future service accrual but has a large number of deferred and current pensioners. The Projected Benefit Obligation (“PBO”) is based on final salary and years of credited service reduced by social security benefits according to a plan formula. Normal retirement age is 65 but provisions are made for early retirement. The Plan’s assets are invested by several investment management companies in funds holding United Kingdom and overseas equities, United Kingdom and overseas fixed interest securities, index linked securities, property unit trusts and cash or cash equivalents. The trustees’ investment policy is to seek to achieve specified objectives through investing in a suitable mixture of real and monetary assets. The trustees recognize that the returns on real assets, while expected to be greater over the long-term than those on monetary assets, are likely to be more volatile. A mixture across asset classes should nevertheless provide the level of returns required by the Plan to meet its liabilities at an acceptable level of risk for the trustees and an acceptable level of cost to the Company.
In 2017, the Company contributed $1.0 million in cash to the Plan in accordance with an agreement with the trustees.
The discount rate used represents the annualized yield based on a cash flow matched methodology with reference to an AA corporate bond spot curve and having regard to the duration of the Plan’s liabilities. The inflation rate is derived using a similar cash flow matched methodology as used for the discount rate but having regard to the difference between yields on fixed interest and index linked United Kingdom government gilts. A 0.25% change in the discount rate assumption would change the PBO by approximately $25 million and the net pension credit for 2017 would change by approximately $0.1 million. A 0.25% change in the level of price inflation assumption would change the PBO by approximately $18 million and the net pension credit for 2017 by approximately $1.5 million.
The current investment strategy of the Plan is to obtain an asset allocation of approximately 85% debt securities and 15% equity securities in order to achieve a more predictable return on assets. As at December 31, 2017, approximately 30% (December 31, 2016 – 37%) of the Plan’s assets were held in index-tracking funds with one investment management company. Approximately 10% (December 31, 2016 – 18%) of the Plan’s assets were invested in United Kingdom government gilts. No more than 5% of the Plan’s assets were invested in any one individual company’s investment funds.
Movements in PBO and fair value of Plan assets are as follows:
The accumulated benefit obligation for the Plan was $721.4 million and $710.2 million at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.
For the vast majority of assets, a market approach is adopted to assess the fair value of the assets, with the inputs being the quoted market prices for the actual securities held in the relevant fund.
Equity securities
Common and preferred stock for which market prices are readily available at the measurement date are valued at the last reported sale price or official closing price on the primary market or exchange on which they are actively traded and are classified in Level 1.
Fixed income securities
Fixed income securities are valued based on quotations received from independent pricing services or from dealers who make markets in such securities and are classified as Level 1.
Insurance contracts
The Company has invested in insurance contracts, known as buy-in contracts. The value of the insurance contract is based on significant unobservable inputs including plan participant medical data, in addition to observable inputs which include expected return on assets and estimated value premium. Therefore we have classified the contracts as Level 3 investments. Fair value estimates are provided by the external parties and are subsequently reviewed and approved by management.
The fair values of pension assets by level of input were as follows:
The reconciliation of the fair value of the Plan assets measured using significant unobservable inputs was as follows:
The projected net service cost for the year ending December 31, 2018 is $1.2 million and will be recognized in selling, general and administrative expenses. The following will be recognized in other income and expense:
In total, there will be a net pension credit of $5.2 million to the Innospec’s net income for the year ending December 31, 2018.
The following benefit payments are expected to be made:
German plan
The Company also maintains an unfunded defined benefit pension plan covering a number of its current and former employees in Germany (the “German plan”). The German plan is closed to new entrants and has no assets.
Movements in PBO of the German plan are as follows:
The amount of unrecognized actuarial net losses in other comprehensive loss in respect of the German plan is $2.6 million, net of tax of $0.8 million.
Other plans
Company contributions to defined contribution schemes during 2017 were $7.9 million (2016 – $7.9 million).
As at December 31, 2017, our Performance Chemicals segment has post-employment obligations in its European businesses with a liability of $4.7 million (December 31, 2016 – $4.1 million). |