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Compliance April 12, 2007
PBGC Takes Anchor Hocking's 13% Funded Pension
April 12, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Fearing that the
pension plan covering about 1,300 Anchor Hocking CG Operating
Company workers and retirees may be abandoned, the nation's
private-sector pension insurer is stepping in.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced Thursday in a news release that it is assuming responsibility for the Anchor Hocking Pension Plan for Union Employees, a plan the PBGC estimated was 13% funded with $1.3 million in assets to cover $10.1 million in benefit liabilities.
Anchor Hocking produces consumer glassware in Lancaster, Ohio, and Monaca, Pennsylvania. Anchor is a unit of Global Home Products LLC of Westerville, Ohio.
According to the agency’s news release, the PBGC is taking the action because the company has missed $5.7 million in required contributions and the plan will be abandoned as a result of the sale of substantially all of Anchor Hocking’s assets, as contemplated in its bankruptcy proceeding.
According to the agency, Global Home Products LLC and Anchor Hocking filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 10, 2006. The sale of substantially all of Anchor Hocking’s assets to a unit of Monomoy Capital Partners LP was approved by the bankruptcy court on March 26, 2007.
The PBGC said that Anchor Hocking and Global Home Products will be divested of substantially all operating assets, leaving the pension plan without a viable sponsor.
The PBGC said in the news release that it expects to be liable for about $4 million of the $8.8 million shortfall. The agency will take over the assets and use PBGC insurance funds to pay guaranteed benefits earned under the plan, which terminated on Thursday.