LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - General Electric announced on Monday that it was freezing its pension plan for around 20,000 US employees with salaried benefits as it looks to cut debt.
The company also said it was freezing the supplementary pension benefits for 700 employees. The actions are expected to cut net debt by between $4bn and $6bn and reduce the pension deficit by about $5bn to $8bn.

There will be no change for GE retirees already collecting pension benefits or employees with production benefits.

GE said it will record a non-cash, pre-tax curtailment charge in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Kevin Cox, chief human resources officer at GE said: "Returning GE to a position of strength has required us to make several difficult decisions, and today's decision to freeze the pension is no exception.

"We carefully weighed market trends and our strategic priority to improve our financial position with the impact to our employees. We are committed to helping our employees through this transition."

The company said it's on track to make "significant" progress towards its leverage goal of less than 2.5x net debt to EBITDA by the end of 2020, inclusive of the impact of the current interest rate environment.

"GE will continue to evaluate further options to reduce leverage and strengthen its balance sheet," it said.

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE