POST RETIREMENT BENEFIT PLANS

During the nine months ended July 31, 2017, an annuity contract for approximately $49.2 million was purchased with United States defined benefit plan assets, and the pension obligation for certain retirees in the United States under that plan was irrevocably transferred from that plan to the annuity contract. Additionally, lump sum payments totaling $42.4 million were made from the defined benefit plan assets to certain participants who agreed to such payments, representing the current fair value of the participant’s respective pension benefit. The settlement items described above resulted in a decrease in the fair value of plan assets and the projected benefit obligation of $91.6 million and a non-cash pension settlement charge of $25.6 million of unrecognized net actuarial loss included in accumulated other comprehensive loss.

During the three months ended July 31, 2017, net lump sum payments totaling $3.5 million were made resulting in a non-cash pension settlement charge of $1.0 million of unrecognized actuarial loss included in accumulated other comprehensive loss.

As a result of the settlements described above, the Company remeasured the United States defined pension plan as of November 30, 2016. The result of this remeasurement was a decline in projected benefit obligation of $21.3 million. This reduction is due to an increase in discount rates from 3.82 percent as of October 31, 2016 to 4.20 percent as of November 30, 2016.

The components of net periodic pension cost include the following:



	Three Months Ended July 31,						Nine Months Ended July 31,
(in millions)	2017			2016			2017			2016
Service cost	$	3.5		$	3.2		$	10.1		$	9.4
Interest cost	4.6			5.7			13.8			16.9
Expected return on plan assets	(7.0		)	(8.3		)	(21.2		)	(24.9		)
Amortization of prior service cost and net actuarial gain	2.6			2.8			8.2			8.6
Net periodic pension costs	$	3.7		$	3.4		$	10.9		$	10.0

The Company made $10.7 million and $9.4 million in pension contributions in the nine months ended July 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

The components of net periodic cost for post retirement benefits include the following:



	Three Months Ended July 31,						Nine Months Ended July 31,
(in millions)	2017			2016			2017			2016
Service cost	$	—		$	—		$	—		$	—
Interest cost	0.1			0.2			0.3			0.4
Amortization of prior service cost and net actuarial gain	(0.5		)	(0.4		)	(1.2		)	(1.2		)
Net periodic benefit for post retirement benefits	$	(0.4	)	$	(0.2	)	$	(0.9	)	$	(0.8	)