Walmart Will Take $2.2 Billion Charge for Asda Pension Shift
- Offloading the pension costs could smooth the path for an IPO
- Rothesay Life to take over liabilities for 12,000 plan members
An employee works at an Asda supermarket in Watford, U.K.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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Walmart Inc. plans to offload the cost of a retirement plan for employees of its British subsidiary Asda, incurring a pretax charge to earnings of about $2.2 billion.
Under terms of the deal, Rothesay Life Plc will take over managing pension liabilities for about 12,000 members going forward. The transaction will simplify “the business at a cost which is significantly below the expected future cost of funding internally,” the companies said in a statement.