Hewlett-Packard Foresees Nearly $600 Million in 2012 Pension Contributions

Hewlett-Packard Co. said it expects to contribute $597 million to its worldwide defined benefit pension plans in 2012, according to its latest 10-K.

HP contributed a total of $279 million to its U.S. pension plans and $458 million to its non-U.S. pension plans in 2011.

The company’s U.S. DB pension assets increased 13.1 percent in 2011 to $10.7 billion as of Oct. 31, the end of the company’s fiscal year. The funded status of its U.S. DB plans was 89.3 percent as of Oct. 31 vs. 86.5 percent a year earlier. The discount rate fell to 4.8 percent from 5.6 percent in the same period.

Assets for HP’s non-U.S. plans increased 3.3 percent to $13.2 billion as of Oct. 31. The funded status of non-U.S. DB plans was 80.7 percent as of Oct. 31 vs. 79.3 percent a year earlier. The discount rate rose to 4.5 percent from 4.4 percent a year earlier.

The asset allocation of HP’s U.S. plans was 57.8 percent fixed income; 17.1 percent equities; 12.7 percent private equity; 7.9 percent collective trusts; and 4.5 percent cash and other. The asset allocation for the non-U.S. plan as of Oct. 31 was 43.9 percent equities; 32.1 percent fixed income; 8.6 percent cash and other; 6 percent alternative hybrids; 5.2 percent real estate; and 4.2 percent hedge funds.

Timothy Pollard writes for Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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