Note 16: Post-retirement benefit provisions

Post-retirement benefit provisions relate to defined benefit pension and other post-retirement benefit plans, including healthcare or welfare plans. The largest defined benefit pension plans are the ICI Pension Fund (ICIPF) and the Akzo Nobel (CPS) Pension Scheme (CPS) in the UK which together account for 82 percent of defined benefit obligations (DBO) and 90 percent of plan assets. Both plans are part of continuing operations. Other pension plans include the largely unfunded plans in Germany and the plans in the US, which will be split into continuing and discontinued operations, and certain other smaller plans in the UK, included in continuing operations. The benefits of these pension plans are based primarily on years of service and employees’ compensation. The funding policy for the plans is consistent with local requirements in the countries of establishment. We also provide certain healthcare and life insurance benefits to retired employees, mainly in the US, where plans will be split into continuing and discontinued operations, and in the Netherlands, where the plan remains in continued operations.

Valuations of the obligations under the plans are carried out regularly by independent qualified actuaries. We accrue for the expected costs of providing such post-retirement benefits during the service years of the employees. Governance of the benefit plans is the responsibility of the Executive Committee Pensions. This committee provides oversight of the costs and risks of the plans including oversight of the impact of the plans on the company in terms of cash flow, pension expenses and the balance sheet. The committee develops and maintains policies on benefit design, funding, asset allocation and assumption setting.

Pension plans

Almost all of the defined benefit plans have been closed to new members since the early to mid-2000s, although in many plans long-serving employees continue to accrue benefits. For plans in the US, benefit accrual is frozen and employees participate in defined contribution plans for future service. In countries where plans are closed, new employees are eligible to join a defined contribution arrangement. In countries in high growth markets, pension schemes currently are not material. Unless mandated by law, it is our policy that any new plans are established as defined contribution plans.

The most significant risks that we run in relation to defined benefit plans are that investment returns fall short of expectations, low discount rates, that inflation exceeds expectations, and that retirees live longer than expected. The assets and liabilities of each of the funded plans are held outside of the company in a trust or a foundation, which is governed by a board of fiduciaries or trustees, depending on the legal arrangements in the country concerned. The primary objective with regard to the investment of pension plan assets is to ensure that each individual plan has sufficient funds available to satisfy future benefit obligations in accordance with local legal and legislative requirements. For this purpose, we work closely with plan trustees or fiduciaries to develop investment strategies. Studies are carried out periodically to analyze and understand the trade-off between expected investment returns, volatility of outcomes and the impact on cash contributions. We aim to strike a cautious balance between these factors in order to agree affordable contribution schedules with plan fiduciaries.

Plan assets principally consist of insurance (annnuity) policies, long-term interest-earning investments and (investment funds with holdings primarily in) quoted equity securities. Our largest plans use derivatives (such as index futures, currency forward contracts and swaps) to reduce volatility of underlying variables, for efficient portfolio management and to improve the liability matching characteristics of the assets. Limits have been set on the use of derivatives which are periodically subject to review for compliance with the pension fund’s investment strategy.

In line with our proactive pension risk management strategy, we seek to reduce risk in our pension plans over time. We continue to evaluate different potential de-risking strategies and opportunities on an ongoing basis. Some future de-risking transactions may have both cash flow and balance sheet impacts which may be substantial, as have some of the de-risking actions already taken. The cost of fully removing risk would exceed estimated funding deficits.

Between 2014 and 2017, ICIPF and a smaller UK plan, the ICI Specialty Chemicals Pension Fund (ISCPF), have invested in annuity buy-in contracts that aim to hedge all key risks related to their pensioner populations. CPS has an insurance contract to hedge longevity risk in respect of a portion of its pensioners. In 2017, the Trustee of the ICIPF entered into three more annuity buy-in agreements with Scottish Widows Limited. Together they cover, in aggregate, £0.4 billion (€0.5 billion) of pensioner liabilities (local plan value). The buy-ins involved the purchase of bulk annuity policies under which the insurers will pay to ICIPF amounts equivalent to the benefits payable to a subset of current pensioners. The pension liabilities remain with ICIPF and the matching annuity policies are held within ICIPF. The accounting impact of the transaction is a lower valuation of the plan assets giving a reduction in Other comprehensive income of £67 million (€77 million). By purchasing bulk annuities, the ICIPF and ISCPF Trustees have both taken significant steps in actively de-risking liabilities and reducing the risk that AkzoNobel will be required to contribute additional cash in the future.

Of the costs recognized in the statement of income €38 million concerned continuing operations (2016: €67 million credit) and €22 million related to discontinued operations (2016: €22 million)

Remeasurement effects recognized in Other comprehensive income for continuing operations amounted to a €462 million gain (2016: €683 million loss) and for discontinued operations to a €24 million gain (2016: €56 million loss). Of the net cash flow €340 million was for continuing operations (2016: €369 million) and €47 million for discontinued operations (2016: €52 million).

The held for sale balance reflects a DBO of €883 million, plan assets of €278 million and an asset restriction amount of €1 million.

The remaining pension plans primarily represent defined contribution plans. This includes, among others, the Pension Fund APF in the Netherlands and the 401k Plan in the US. The ITP2 plan in Sweden is financed through insurance with the Alecta insurance company and is classified as a multi-employer defined benefit plan. As AkzoNobel does not have access to sufficient information from Alecta to enable a defined benefit accounting treatment, it is accounted for as a defined contribution plan. Contributions in 2017 were €8 million (2016: €7 million). Alecta’s target funding ratio in 2017 was 140 percent. The most recently quoted ratio at December 2017 stood at 154 percent. There is also a small number of multi-employer plans in Germany in which AkzoNobel participates with annual contributions totaling €1 million. These are also accounted for as defined contribution plans. The expenses of all plans accounted for as defined contribution plans in AkzoNobel totaled €156 million (€88 million continuing operations, €68 million discontinued operations) in 2017 (2016: €152 million; €81 million continuing operations, €71 million discontinued operations).

Reconciliation balance sheet

The adjacent table details the annual movements for the total post-retirement benefit provisions. The closing net balance sheet provision comprises: Pension plans €163 million (2016: €990 million) and Other post-retirement benefit plans €247 million (2016: €278 million).

Other post-retirement benefit plans

AkzoNobel provides certain healthcare and life insurance benefits to retired employees, mainly in the US and the Netherlands. The risks to which the US healthcare plans expose AkzoNobel include the risk of future increases in the cost of healthcare which would increase the cost of maintaining the plans. The benefit payments to retirees under the Dutch plan are frozen. Both plans expose AkzoNobel to the risk of a further decline in discount rates, which increases the plan obligations, and longevity risk as the plans generally pay lifetime benefits.

Administrative expenses

In addition to the expenses borne by the funds themselves, some expenses are borne directly by AkzoNobel. Administrative expenses are incurred, especially for the UK pension funds, of €12 million (2016: €15 million), which are included in Operating income, all concerning continuing operations. In addition, we directly incurred asset management expenses of €6 million (2016: €9 million), which have been included in Other comprehensive income.

Interest costs

Interest costs on DBO for both pensions and other post-retirement benefits together with the interest income on plan assets comprise the net financing expenses related to post-retirement benefits of €19 million (€7 million continuing operations, €12 million discontinued operations) (2016: €10 million; €6 million credit continuing operations, €16 million charge discontinued operations), see Note 6.

Plan assets

The equities and government bond debt assets in the table below have quoted prices in active markets, although most are held through funds comprised of such instruments which are not actively traded themselves. The UK buy-in annuity policies are unquoted plan assets. The other categories of plan assets include certain assets that are not quoted in active markets. Such unquoted securities totaled €1,045 million (2016: €971 million) and include investments in real estate, totaling €340 million (2016: €322 million) and other investments in infrastructure, catastrophe bonds, insurance policies and high-yield credit strategies. Plan assets did not directly include any of AkzoNobel’s own transferable financial instruments, nor any property occupied by or assets used by the company.

Pension plans in asset position

Pension balances recorded under Other financial non-current assets totaled €895 million (2016: €220 million) and fully concern continuing operations. The increase in 2017 was primarily due to €259 million of top-up pension contributions and €417 million of net actuarial gains in the relevant plans. These assets could be recognized under IFRIC 14 because economic benefits are available in the form of future refunds from the plan or reductions in future contributions to the plan, either during the life of the plan or on the (final) settlement of the plan liabilities.

Cash flows

In 2018, we expect to contribute €269 million (2017: €367 million) to our defined benefit pension plans. We expect to pay a further €19 million (2017: €20 million) for other post-retirement benefit plans. No allowance is made for any special one-off contributions that may arise in relation to new de-risking opportunities.

The figures in the table below are the estimated future benefit payments to be paid from the plans to beneficiaries over the next ten years.

The sensitivity effect on DBO shown allows for an alternative value for each assumption while the other actuarial assumptions remain unchanged. While this table illustrates the overall impact on DBO of the changes shown, the significance of the impact and the range of reasonably possible alternative assumptions may differ between the different plans that comprise the total DBO. In particular, the plans differ in benefit design, currency and average term, meaning that different assumptions have different levels of significance for each plan. The sensitivity analysis is intended to illustrate the inherent uncertainty in the valuation of the DBO under market conditions at the measurement date. Its results cannot be extrapolated due to non-linear effects that changes in the key actuarial assumptions may have on the total DBO. Furthermore, the analysis does not indicate a probability of such changes occurring and it does not necessarily represent our view of expected future changes in DBO. Any management actions that may be taken to mitigate the inherent risks in the post-retirement defined benefit plans are not reflected in this analysis, as they would normally be reflected in plan asset changes rather than DBO changes.

The sensitivities in the table only apply to the DBO and not to the net amounts recognized in the balance sheet. Movements in the fair value of plan assets (which include the de-risking instruments) would, to a significant extent, be expected to offset movements in the DBO resulting from changes in the given assumptions. The annuity buy-in contracts cover 99 percent of pensioner liabilities (2016: 96 percent) and 82 percent of total liabilities at ICIPF (2016: 76 percent). The longevity hedge contract covers 58 percent of pensioner liabilities (2016: 66 percent) and 36 percent of total liabilities at CPS (2016: 38 percent).