Lucent Dials Up Pension Credit In FY 2003

August 14, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Bucking the trend of corporate pension underfunding, Lucent Technologies has disclosed a forecasted credit from its pension and retirement benefits for fiscal year 2003.

The much maligned telecommunications company revealed in a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that credit from its retirement plans could touch $700 million for the fiscal year ending September 30.   While this is up from the $600-million projection the company made in May, it is down from the $972 million credit Lucent reported for fiscal 2002, according to a Dow Jones report.

This comes as the Murray Hill, New Jersey-based company reflected a credit in the first nine months of its fiscal year of $488 million compared with $719 million for the same period last year, according to the filing.  

Lucent receives the net pension and postretirement benefit credit based on the amount of accrual in its benefit plans.   The credit is a non-cash benefit but it is still included on the company’s income statement.

The collective value of the company’s pension and postretirement plan assets was $41 billion in fiscal 2002. Lucent will release an updated value at the end of its fiscal year.

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