GE to freeze pension plans for about 20,000 US employees in a bid to cut debt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Full disclosure: I own shares of GE.

INDUSTRIALS
GE to freeze pension plans for about 20,000 US employees in a bid to cut debt
PUBLISHED 4 HOURS AGO UPDATED 41 MIN AGO
Reuters

KEY POINTS
• General Electric said on Monday it was freezing the pension plan for about 20,000 U.S. employees with salaried benefits.
• The industrial conglomerate is trying to slash its huge pile of debt.
• The move will also help reduce the company’s pension deficit by about $5 billion to $8 billion.

General Electric said on Monday it was freezing pension plans for about 20,000 U.S. employees with salaried benefits, as the industrial conglomerate makes another drastic move to cut debt and reduce its pension deficit by up to $8 billion.

Since taking over a year ago, Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp has carved out a number of measures to streamline the company and raise cash to pare debt. He has also chopped the company’s dividend to a penny.

GE and its finance arm had total borrowings of about $105.8 billion as of June 30, with industrial net debt at $54.4 billion.

The company said it will also freeze supplementary pension benefits for about 700 U.S. employees who became executives before 2011. GE’s pension plan has been closed to new entrants since 2012.

GE said the freeze is effective Jan. 1, 2021, and both moves are expected to help lower net debt between $4 billion and $6 billion.
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[AllaN01Bear]

1. get rid of the ceos and his high priced staff.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. But they need their big bonuses

[PoliticAverse]

2. From August "GE does not dispute that it has $71b in assets and $106b in debt"...

https://boingboing.net/2019/08/16/worse-than-enron.html