PENSION PLANS AND RETIREMENT BENEFITS

We sponsor domestic and foreign defined benefit pension plans for eligible employees and retirees. Most of our domestic employees participate in defined contribution plans. However, a portion of our bargaining hourly employees continue to participate in our domestic qualified defined benefit pension plans under a flat-benefit formula. Our funding policy for the qualified defined benefit pension plans is consistent with the requirements of federal laws and regulations. Our foreign subsidiaries maintain pension and other benefit plans, which are consistent with local statutory practices.

Our domestic qualified defined benefit pension plan provides that if, within three years following a change of control of Olin, any corporate action is taken or filing made in contemplation of, among other things, a plan termination or merger or other transfer of assets or liabilities of the plan, and such termination, merger, or transfer thereafter takes place, plan benefits would automatically be increased for affected participants (and retired participants) to absorb any plan surplus (subject to applicable collective bargaining requirements).

We also provide certain postretirement healthcare (medical) and life insurance benefits for eligible active and retired domestic employees. The healthcare plans are contributory with participants’ contributions adjusted annually based on medical rates of inflation and plan experience.



	Pension Benefits						Other Postretirement Benefits
	Three Months Ended September 30,						Three Months Ended September 30,
	2018			2017			2018		2017
Components of Net Periodic Benefit (Income) Cost	($ in millions)
Service cost	$	3.3		$	2.4		$	0.3	$	0.3
Interest cost	21.5			21.8			0.3		0.3
Expected return on plans’ assets	(36.5		)	(37.3		)	—		—
Amortization of prior service cost	—			—			—		(0.6		)
Recognized actuarial loss	8.6			6.8			0.6		0.6
Net periodic benefit (income) cost	$	(3.1	)	$	(6.3	)	$	1.2	$	0.6



	Pension Benefits						Other Postretirement Benefits
	Nine Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2018			2017			2018		2017
Components of Net Periodic Benefit (Income) Cost	($ in millions)
Service cost	$	8.5		$	6.9		$	1.0	$	0.9
Interest cost	64.8			65.0			1.1		1.1
Expected return on plans’ assets	(109.9		)	(111.8		)	—		—
Amortization of prior service cost	—			—			—		(1.9		)
Recognized actuarial loss	25.9			20.2			1.8		1.9
Net periodic benefit (income) cost	$	(10.7	)	$	(19.7	)	$	3.9	$	2.0

We made cash contributions to our international qualified defined benefit pension plans of $1.3 million and $1.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

In March 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-07, “Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost” (ASU 2017-07) which amends ASC 715 “Compensation—Retirement Benefits.” The adoption of ASU 2017-07 resulted in a change in our net periodic benefit (income) costs within operating income, which was offset by a corresponding change in non-operating pension income to reflect the impact of presenting the interest cost, expected return on plan assets, amortization of prior service cost and net actuarial loss components of net periodic benefit (income) costs outside of operating income. We adopted this update on January 1, 2018 using the retrospective method. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017, the adoption of ASU 2017-07 resulted in a reclassification of $3.7 million and $11.3 million, respectively, from cost of goods sold and $4.7 million and $14.2 million, respectively, from selling and administration to non-operating pension income reflecting the aforementioned reclassification on our condensed statements of operations. The service cost component of net periodic benefit (income) costs continue to be included in the same income statement line item as other employee compensation costs arising from services rendered during the period.