Trinity Mirror’s pension deficit balloons to £300m
Trinity Mirror has been hit by a marked deterioration in its pension deficit after bosses elected to reduce contributions in order to pay down debts.
In a move backed by the Pensions Regulator the publisher will pay just £10m a year into the fund until 2015 when it will resume payments of £33m, a move which will increase the pensions deficit to £300m.
The group currently faces pension liabilities of £1.8bn with the deficit shooting up from £230m in 2011 to £300m last year, despite Trinity’s market value of just £238m.
Trinity has been struggling to contain its pension’s liabilities since Robert Maxwell, its former owner, plundered the scheme in the eighties.
Pensions consultant John Ralfe told the Sunday Rimes, believes this principle has been undermined: “Trinity Mirror drove a coach and horses through the fundamental regulatory principle that the pension scheme should not be subordinated to other unsecured creditors.”