Profits of public companies may suffer hit over pensions

THE profits of Irish public companies with defined benefit pension schemes could take a big hit from the €2bn plus fall in the value of their pension assets this year, according to stockbrokers Merrion Capital.

Merrion has identified the three companies Viridian, Waterford Wedgwood and Glanbia as having “an unsustainably low level of pension fund contributions”. “Companies where we estimate a ‘point in time’ pension scheme deficit of greater than 10% of the company’s market value include Waterford Wedgwood (-31%), Glanbia (-11%), Ardagh (-92%), and Qualceram (-35%).

However, this in itself does not necessarily signal any impending problem, the brokers said yesterday.