U.K. Pension Commitments
In the U.K., EADS participates in several funded trustee-administered pension plans for both executive and non-executive employees, with BAE Systems being the principal employer. These plans qualify as multi-employer defined benefit plans under IAS 19 “Employee Benefits”. EADS’ most significant investments in terms of employees participating in these BAE Systems U.K. pension plans are Airbus U.K. and MBDA U.K. For Airbus, this remains the case even subsequent to the acquisition of BAE Systems’ 20% minority interest in Airbus on 13th October 2006. Participating Airbus U.K. employees have continued to remain members in the BAE Systems U.K. pension plans due to the U.K. pension agreement between EADS and BAE Systems dated 11th July 2001, as well as a change in U.K. pension legislation enacted in April 2006 that removes previous restrictions on unassociated employers participating in a single pension plan.
Generally, based on the funding situation of the respective pension plans, the pension plan trustees determine the contribution rates to be paid by the participating employers to adequately fund the plans. The different U.K. pension plans in which EADS investments participate are currently underfunded. BAE Systems has previously agreed with the trustees to undertake various measures in order to remedy such underfunding. These include: (i) making regular contribution payments for active employees at levels well above those that would prevail in the case of adequately funded plans and (ii) making extra contributions.
Due to contractual arrangements between EADS and BAE Systems, the contributions that EADS must make in respect of its participation in the two largest pension plans are capped for a defined period of time (i.e., until July 2011 for Airbus U.K. and until December 2007 for MBDA U.K.). Contributions exceeding the respective capped amounts are paid by BAE Systems. EADS is therefore neither exposed to increased regular contribution payments resulting from the pension plans’ underfunding, nor to a participation in extra contribution payments during the period of the contribution caps. Even after the expiry of the contribution caps, the unique funding arrangements between BAE Systems and EADS create a situation for EADS different from common U.K. multi-employer plans, with special regulations limiting the regular contributions that must be paid by Airbus U.K. and MBDA U.K. to rates applicable to all participating employers.
Based on the information that BAE Systems has provided regarding the various pension plans, EADS has prepared an estimate of its share of the pension plans’ assets, defined benefit obligations and related underfunding, which takes into account the impacts of the contribution caps’ mechanism described above as well as those of future extra contributions agreed by BAE Systems with plan trustees. Accordingly, EADS has recorded a provision of €(494) million as of 31st December 2007 (compared to €(897) million as of 31st December 2006) for its current share of the net pension underfunding in the U.K. A related amount of €(554) million has been recorded in total equity (net of deferred taxes) as of 31st December 2007 (compared to €(853) million as of 31st December 2006), consistent with the application of revised IAS 19 (equity approach) described above.
For further information related to EADS’ participation in multi-employer pension plans in the U.K., see “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (IFRS) — Note 22b: Provisions for retirement plans”.
