The billion-pound black hole | Features

The top 20 contractors by contracting turnover have almost all taken steps to close their final salary schemes to new entrants and nearly half have increased contributions or cut benefits for members. But their pension debts continue to grow 鈥� to a combined black hole of just over 拢1bn. To put each company鈥檚 deficit in context 鈥� and give a rough indication of how much danger it presents to the balance sheet 鈥� we鈥檝e included it as a percentage of the market capitalisation or total value of listed companies, or turnover in the case of private firms.			Latest figure for pension fund deficit (FRS 17, gross)	Market capitalisation or turnover	Deficit as % of market capitalisation or turnover
听	听	听	听	听	听
1	Balfour Beatty	Closed to new entrants 2003. No plans to make further changes.	拢229尘1	拢1.629产苍	14.10%
2	Bovis Lend Lease	Closed to new entrants 2003. Trustees have written to members informing them that contributions will rise, though there are no plans to 鈥渄o a Rentokil鈥�.	拢76.5尘	拢2.2产苍2	3.40%
3	Mowlem	No comment.	拢99尘	拢320.5尘	23.90%
4	Laing O鈥橰ourke	Operates a defined contribution scheme.	N/A	听	听
5	Amec	Open to everyone, no plans to change that.	拢120m surplus	听	听
6	Kier	Closed to new members 2002, existing members鈥� contributions increased by 1% and changes have been made to early retirement terms. Wouldn鈥檛 say if there were plans to change it further.	拢118尘	拢527.2尘	22.40%
7	Carillion	Closed to new entrants 2003. Existing members had the choice of raising contributions or taking a cut in benefits. No plans to change it further.	拢85.6尘	拢684.5尘	12.50%
8	Skanska	Closed to new entrants in 2004, they are offered career average scheme instead. No plans to change it further.	拢26.5尘	拢3.7产苍3	0.07%
9	HBG UK	No comment.	拢22尘4	拢554.5尘*	3.90%
10	Sir Robert McAlpine	Closed to new entrants 2003.	拢15m net5	拢681.3尘*	2.20%
11	Costain	Closed to new entrants June 2005. From 1 April this year, final salary retirement benefits replaced by career average.	拢98.9尘	拢176尘	56.20%
12	Shepherd 精东影视 Group	Closed to new entrants 1999. Existing members have the choice of paying increased contributions or receiving reduced benefits. No plans to make further changes. Company reiterated commitment to scheme.	拢23.7尘	拢655.9尘*	3.60%
13	Morgan Sindall	Closed scheme to further accrual 1996 鈥� no new entrants could join and existing members were moved to a defined contribution scheme.	拢2.01尘	拢483.4尘	0.40%
14	Keller	Closed to new entrants 1999. Raised employee contributions from 6% to 8% in 2002, employer contribution from 12 to 13% in 2003. Just written to members to announce scheme will close to future accrual on 31 March.	拢8.2尘	拢268尘	3.10%
15	Wates Group	Closed to new entrants in 2001. Contributions have been increased twice. No immediate changes planned.	拢22.5尘	拢631尘*	3.50%
16	Interserve	Closed to new entrants. In 2003 existing members were told they could either double contributions or halve their benefits. Triennial review due in mid 2006.	拢130尘	拢406.1尘	32%
17	Bowmer & Kirkland	Defined benefit scheme closed to employees joining since November 2000.	拢22.5尘	拢520.6尘*	4.30%
18	MJ Gleeson	Operates a money purchase scheme.	N/A	听	听
19	Galliford Try	Closed to new members in 2002, replaced with stakeholder scheme. Contributions for existing members were increased to 7% in 2004. No plans to make further changes but pension situation reviewed regularly.	拢45.9尘	拢260.8尘	17.60%
20	Vinci	Employee pensions provided under French rules. Four employees with UK contracts offered defined contribution scheme.	N/A	听	听
听	听	听	听	听	听
听	听	听	听	拢1.025产苍	听TOTAL DEFICIT
听	听	听	听	听	听
听
* Denotes turnover figure for private companies
1 Total across four schemes: Balfour Beatty Pension Fund, Railways Pension Fund and two Mansell schemes
2 Lend Lease market capitalisation on Australian stock exchange
3 Skanska group market capitalisation on Swedish stock exchange
4 HBG UK deficit as reported September 2005
5 Net figure as quoted in Robert McAlpine鈥檚 results

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