Long-standing U.S. retail giant Sears continues to try to offset its current and future retirement costs through some careful management of its debt – and a move to try to soften those pension obligations.
Bloomberg reports that in an effort to help fund lump-sum payments to its retirees, the company's employee pension plan has sold off a share of the $250 million in Sears Holdings Corp. debt it purchased several years ago.
The company's retirement plan has filed to sell more than $11 million worth of senior secured notes, which will mature in 2018.
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Back in September, Sears announced that it was going to attempt to vastly boost the funding level of its pension plan so it could then entice company retirees to take lump-sum payments, helping to lighten the long-term load of its $6.1 billion pension obligations.
"We have to fund those lump sums for people who elected it," a Sears spokesman told Bloomberg. "It's not an indicator of the investment committee's view of the bonds."
Sears has aid it will show a loss of up to $360 million in the fourth quarter, partially connected to a $450 million non-cash charge related to those voluntary pension settlements.
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