Crown Holdings To Acquire Group Annuity Contract From MassMutual

(RTTNews) - Crown Holdings, Inc. (CCK) announced on Friday that it has finalized an agreement to acquire a group annuity contract from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. also known as MassMutual. The agreement will result in the removal of $740 million in both assets and liabilities related to US pension plans from Crown's balance sheet.

Including prior buy-outs in Canada and the UK, the company will have annuitized approximately $4 billion in pension liabilities since 2021.

This move aims to fully secure benefits for nearly all retirees and deferred vested participants within Crown's primary defined benefit plans in the United States, impacting around 12,000 individuals.

Crown plans to contribute $100 million to the pension plan and anticipates a one-time non-cash charge of $450 million or $340 million after-tax, in the third quarter of 2024.

The company stated that the payments to participants from MassMutual will commence on November 1, 2024, and the benefits for retirees and other plan participants will remain unaffected by this transaction.