Note 15: Post-retirement benefit provisions

Post-retirement benefit provisions relate to defined benefit pension and other post-retirement benefits, including healthcare or welfare plans. We have a number of defined benefit pension plans. The largest pension plans are the ICI Pension Fund (ICIPF) and the AkzoNobel Pension Scheme (CPS) in the UK which together account for 83 percent of defined benefit obligations (DBO) and 91 percent of plan assets. Other pension plans include the largely unfunded plans in Germany, the plans in the US and certain other smaller plans in the UK. The benefits of these pension plans are based primarily on years of service and employees’ compensation. The funding policy for the plans is consistent with local requirements in the countries of establishment. We also provide certain healthcare and life insurance benefits to retired employees, mainly in the US and the Netherlands.

Valuations of the obligations under the plans are carried out regularly by independent qualified actuaries. We accrue for the expected costs of providing such post-retirement benefits during the service years of the employees. Governance of the benefit plans is the responsibility of the ExCo Pensions Committee. This committee provides oversight of the costs and risks of the plans including oversight of the impact of the plans on the company in terms of cash flow, pension expenses and the balance sheet, by the development and maintenance of policies on benefit design, funding, asset allocation and assumption setting.

Pension plans

Almost all of the defined benefit plans have been closed to new members since the early to mid-2000s, although in many plans long-serving employees continue to accrue benefits. For plans in the US, benefit accrual is frozen and employees participate in defined contribution plans for future service. In countries where plans are closed, new employees are eligible to join a defined contribution arrangement. In countries in high growth markets, pension schemes currently are not material. Unless mandated by law, it is our policy that any new plans are established as defined contribution plans.

The most significant risks that we run in relation to defined benefit plans are that investment returns fall short of expectations, a decline in discount rates, that inflation exceeds expectations, and that retirees live longer than expected. The assets and liabilities of each of the funded plans are held outside of the company in a trust or a foundation, which is governed by a board of fiduciaries or trustees, depending on the legal arrangements in the country concerned. The primary objective with regard to the investment of pension plan assets is to ensure that each individual plan has sufficient funds available to satisfy future benefit obligations in accordance with local legal and legislative requirements. For this purpose, we work closely with plan trustees or fiduciaries to develop strategic asset allocation strategies. Asset liability modeling (ALM) studies are carried out periodically to analyze and understand the trade-off between expected investment returns, volatility of outcomes and the impact on cash contributions. We aim to strike a cautious balance between these factors in order to agree affordable contribution schedules with plan fiduciaries. Plan assets principally consist of long-term interest-earning investments, insurance policies and (investment funds with holdings primarily in) quoted equity securities. Our largest plans use derivatives (such as index futures, currency forward contracts and swaps) to reduce volatility of underlying variables, for efficient portfolio management and to improve the liability matching characteristics of the assets. Limits have been set on the use of derivatives which are periodically subject to review for compliance with the pension fund’s investment strategy. ICIPF invested in annuity contracts in 2014 that aim to hedge all key risks related to a certain part of the pensioner population and CPS has an insurance contract with SwissRe to hedge longevity risk in respect of a portion of its pensioners.

In line with our proactive pension risk management strategy, we seek to reduce risk in our pension plans over time. We continue to evaluate different potential de-risking strategies and opportunities on an ongoing basis. Some future de-risking transactions may have both cash flow and balance sheet impacts which may be substantial, as have some of the de-risking actions already taken. The cost of fully removing risk would likely exceed estimated funding deficits. In March 2014, the Trustee of ICIPF entered into two annuity buy-in agreements in line with their ongoing strategy of de-risking which is supported by AkzoNobel. The two agreements are with Legal & General plc and Prudential Retirement Income Limited and covered, in aggregate, £3.6 billion (€4.3 billion) of pensioner liabilities, which is broadly equivalent to one quarter of our pension liabilities and one third of the ICIPF liabilities. The buy-ins involved the purchase of bulk annuity policies under which the insurers will pay to ICIPF amounts equivalent to the benefits payable to a subset of current pensioners. The pension liabilities remain with ICIPF and the matching annuity policies are held within ICIPF. The accounting impact of the transaction is a lower valuation of the plan assets giving a reduction in Other comprehensive income of £640 million (€773 million). The Trustee of ICIPF transacted a further, smaller buy-in in November 2014 with Prudential Retirement Income Limited covering £0.3 billion (€0.4 billion) of pensions liabillities giving a reduction in Other comprehensive income of £55 million (€68 million). By purchasing these bulk annuities, the Trustee has taken a significant step in actively de-risking liabilities and reducing the risk that AkzoNobel will be required to contribute additional cash in the future.

The remaining pension plans primarily represent defined contribution plans. This includes, among others, the Pension Fund APF in the Netherlands and the 401k Plan in the US. The ITP2 plan in Sweden is financed through insurance with the Alecta insurance company and is classified as a multi-employer defined benefit plan. AkzoNobel does not have access to sufficient information from Alecta to enable a defined benefit accounting treatment and hence it is accounted for as a defined contribution plan. Contributions in 2014 were €10 million (2013: €10 million). Alecta’s target funding ratio in 2014 was 140 percent although the most recently quoted ratio at September 2014 stood at 146 percent. There are also a small number of multi-employer plans in the US and Germany in which AkzoNobel participates with annual contributions in each case totaling less than €1 million. These are also accounted for as defined contribution plans. The expenses of plans classified as defined contribution plans in AkzoNobel totaled €145 million in 2014 (2013: €172 million).

Other post-retirement benefit plans

AkzoNobel provides certain healthcare and life insurance benefits to retired employees, mainly in the US and the Netherlands. The risks to which the US healthcare plans expose AkzoNobel include the risk of future increases in the cost of healthcare which would increase the cost of maintaining the plans. The benefit payments to retirees under the Dutch plan are frozen. Both plans expose AkzoNobel to the risk of a further decline in long-term corporate bond rates, which increases the plan obligations, and longevity risk as the plans generally pay lifetime benefits.

In addition to the expenses borne by the funds themselves, some expenses are borne directly by AkzoNobel. Administrative expenses are incurred, especially for the UK pension funds, of €17 million (2013: €12 million), which are included in Operating income. In addition, we directly incurred asset management expenses of €7 million (2013: €6 million), which have been included in Other comprehensive income.

Interest costs on DBO for both pensions and other post-retirement benefits together with the interest income on plan assets comprise the net financing expenses related to pensions of €18 million (2013: €21 million), see Note 5.

The equities and debt assets in the table above have quoted prices in active markets, although most are held through funds comprised of such instruments which are not actively traded themselves. Other plan assets include certain assets that are not quoted in active markets, such as real estate, insurance policies and private equity.

Other assets included unquoted securities totaling €654 million (2013: €531 million), of which €314 million is invested in real estate (2013: €229 million). Plan assets did not directly include any of AkzoNobel’s own transferable financial instruments, nor any property occupied by or assets used by the company.

In the US, the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 introduced prescription drug benefits for retirees, as well as a federal subsidy to sponsors of post-retirement healthcare plans, which both began on January 1, 2006. We have recognized this reimbursement right as an asset under Other financial non-current assets, measured at fair value amounting to €3 million (2013: €2 million).

Pension balances recorded under Other financial non-current assets totaled €409 million (2013: €483 million) could be recognized under IFRIC14 because economic benefits are available in the form of future refunds from the plan or reductions in future contributions to the plan, either during the life of the plan or on the (final) settlement of the plan liabilities.

Cash flows

In 2015, we expect to contribute €431 million to our defined benefit pension plans. This includes €99 million of regular pension contributions and €332 million for top-ups, of which £25 million (€32 million) will be paid out of the CPS escrow account (see explanation in Key plan details). We expect to pay a further €24 million for other post-retirement benefit plans. No allowance is made for any special one-off contributions that may arise in relation to new de-risking opportunities.

The figures in the table below are the estimated future benefit payments to be paid from the plans to beneficiaries over the next ten years.

The effect on DBO shown allows for an alternative value for each assumption while the other actuarial assumptions remain unchanged. While this table illustrates the overall impact on DBO of the changes shown, the significance of the impact and the range of reasonably possible alternative assumptions may differ between the different plans that comprise the total DBO; in particular the plans differ in benefit design, currency and average term, meaning that different assumptions have different levels of significance for each plan. The sensitivity analysis is intended to illustrate the inherent uncertainty in the valuation of the DBO under market conditions at the measurement date. Its results cannot be extrapolated due to non-linear effects that changes in the key actuarial assumptions may have on the total DBO. Furthermore, the analysis does not indicate a probability of such changes occurring and it does not necessarily represent our view of expected future changes in DBO. Any management actions that may be taken to mitigate the inherent risks in the post-retirement defined benefit plans or changes in asset values are not reflected in this analysis.

The sensitivities in the table only apply to the DBO and not to the net amounts recognized in the balance sheet. Movements in the fair value of plan assets would, to a significant extent, be expected to offset movements in the DBO resulting from changes in the given assumptions.