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Subsequent Event
3 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2012
Subsequent Events [Abstract]  
Subsequent Events

Note 14.      Subsequent Events 

 

On September 20, 2012, the Company amended its U.S. qualified pension plans and began notifying certain former employees of the Company of its offer to pay those employees’ pension benefit in a lump sum.  Former employees eligible for the voluntary lump sum payment option are generally those who are vested traditional formula participants of the U.S. qualified pension plans who terminated employment prior to August 1, 2012 and who have not yet started receiving monthly payments of their pension benefits.  The Company is offering the one-time voluntary lump sum window in an effort to reduce its long-term pension obligations and ongoing annual pension expense. The Company estimates that, depending on participation rates estimated at 50% to 75%, the voluntary lump sum payments, to be paid from plan assets, could reduce its global pension benefit obligation by approximately $140-$210 million and improve its pension underfunding by approximately $35-$55 million.  The Company estimates that it will also have to incur a non-cash pre-tax charge of approximately $45-$65 million in the quarter ending December 31, 2012 as a result of the requirement to expense the unrealized actuarial losses currently recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) that relate to liabilities that will be settled at December 31, 2012.  The Company expects ongoing pension expense to be reduced by $4-$5 million on an annual pre-tax basis.  Actual participation rates and payout amounts will not be known until December 2012. 

 

On October 19, 2012, the Company announced that it had acquired a 14.9% economic interest in GrainCorp (see Note 3 for disclosure about this investment).  The Company has approached GrainCorp with the aim of arriving at an agreement under which GrainCorp’s Board of Directors would recommend to its shareholders a cash acquisition by the Company. Any agreement would be subject to satisfactory due diligence, regulatory approvals and other conditions.  As of the date of this report, no agreement had been reached between the Company and GrainCorp.