On the go: Money printer De La Rue has agreed a new schedule with its pension scheme, which will allow it to maintain its deficit repair contributions at £15mn a year until March 2029, saving it £57mn in cash payments.
The De La Rue Pension Scheme actuarial valuation was brought forward to April 5 2021, from the original date of December 31 2022. The valuation revealed a reduced funding deficit of £119.5mn, down from a shortfall of £142.6mn as of December 31 2019.
This deficit compares with an agreed total contributions schedule of £177mn from April 2021 to March 2029.
Things look even rosier on an IAS 19 accounting basis, which yielded a net surplus of £300,000 as of September 25 2021, compared with a deficit of £18.5mn on March 27 2021.
De La Rue has therefore agreed a plan to keep its contributions towards the scheme flat at £15mn, avoiding an expected increase in annual contributions to £24.5mn from April next year.
In aggregate, this will slash its contributions towards the scheme by £57mn.
In 2020, De La Rue conducted a £92.7mn equity capital raising, after costs, with the aim of helping it deliver a turnaround of the group. In the same year, it agreed a plan to wipe out its scheme’s funding deficit.
"I am delighted that we have reached agreement with the trustee that continues to honour the commitments we made back in 2020 to pay off the scheme deficit by 2029,” Clive Vacher, De La Rue chief executive officer, said.
In January, De La Rue avoided having to add £20mn to its pensions liabilities after a judge ruled in its favour over how certain members’ deferred benefits should be revalued.
The judge criticised the wording of the scheme’s rules, describing the language of an offending rule as “obscure and poorly expressed”.
