Verizon transfers $7.5 billion of management pension plan liabilities to Prudential in major pension de-risking transaction
Client(s) Verizon Communications, Inc.
Jones Day advised Verizon Communications Inc. in its transfer of approximately $7.5 billion in Verizon balance sheet liabilities attributable to outstanding pension obligations to Prudential Life Insurance Company of America. The transaction involved the Verizon Management Pension Plan which covers approximately 41,000 management retirees.
Prudential Life Insurance Company issued a group annuity contract to Verizon in return for cash and certain pension plan assets. At closing, Prudential assumed responsibility for making monthly pension payments currently made by the pension plan trust to all management employees who retired prior to January 1, 2010.
Jones Day has been lead counsel to the pension plan sponsor in the two largest pension de-risking transactions in U.S. history: the Verizon buy-out annuity transaction, and General Motors LLC's $26 billion termination and annuitization of its salaried employees pension plan, both with Prudential.
The Jones Day team that advised Verizon principally included members of the firm's Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation and Mergers & Acquisitions practice groups, and was led by Evan Miller, Jere Thomson, Peter Izanec, and Anthony Perricone.
