Boskalis Annual Report 2018

113

The Group has no direct involvement in the governance of the multi-employer pension funds. Employers’ Associations, of which the Group is a member, designate some of the board members and/or supervisors of the multi-employer pension funds. In addition, the boards also include representatives of employees and retirees, possibly supplemented by one or more independent persons. The pension includes retirement and survivor's pension. These pension funds have indicated they are not able to provide sufficient information for a calculation in accordance with IFRS because there is no reliable and consistent basis to which to attribute the pension obligations, plan assets, and the absolute and relative share of the Group in the fund and to which to allocate income and expenses to the individual member companies of these pension funds. As a result, these defined benefit plans are recognized in these financial statements as a defined contribution plan in accordance with IFRS. In all cases relating to industry-wide multi-employer pension funds, the Group has no obligation whatsoever to pay additional contributions in the case of a deficit in the respective fund, other than paying the annual premium. Nor does the Group have a right to any surpluses in the funds. The premium covers the actuarially determined cost of purchasing the yearly rights for participants. The premium on the basis of the actuarial cost of purchasing rights in years is influenced by customary underlying actuarial assumptions, expected returns and often agreed ceilings. The expected contribution for the coming year is explained below. Other pension plans Other pension plans relate to, individually not material, multi-employer pension plans arranged with pension funds in the United Kingdom and insurance companies in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as to minor unfunded defined benefit plans for two group companies in Germany. These pension plans are in compliance with local laws and/or regulations applicable in the aforementioned countries. With the exception of the plan in the United Kingdom, where the Group may appoint one or more Directors or Trustees, the Group has no direct and/or significant involvement in the governance of these pension plans. The pension plans are characterized by defined benefit rights over the participant’s years of service, which are mainly based on average wages and include retirement and survivor’s pension. These pensions are indexed, for the main part with a limit being set to the available contributions and the return on plan assets, respectively. The pension liabilities and pension assets are placed with and managed by the pension funds or insurance companies. The risk for the Group relating to these pensions is therefore limited. With the exception of a closed pension plan in the United Kingdom, the future cash flows for the other arrangements are limited to the actuarially calculated annual premiums based on the cost of purchasing future pension rights. In other funded defined benefit plans there is no enforceable statutory or regulatory direct obligation to cover any deficits to fulfill future actuarial obligations. The contributions are subject to the customary, actuarial assumptions, expected returns and agreed contribution ceiling. The Group’s company pension fund in the United Kingdom is managed by BKW Trustee Company Limited. The management of the Trust company is partly appointed by Boskalis and partly elected by plan participants. The investment policy is geared to the fact that it is a closed arrangement and investments at the end of the year were only fixed income. Pension law in the United Kingdom includes the requirement to annually index pension plans. There is no requirement to immediately and fully cover an existing deficit in this pension plan. However, the intention is to transfer the pension obligation in the near future to an insurance company. Defined benefit pension plans As per 2018, the remaining balance of the net defined benefit obligation mainly relates to closed pension plans. The net defined benefit obligation of the aforementioned pension plan in the United Kingdom is in line with the expected pricings of the transfer to an insurance company in the near future. The expected contribution to this fund for the coming year, other than payment of the net defined benefit obligation in case of a buy in/buy out transaction being realized, is expected to be close to nil. (2017: GBP 0.6 million). The other defined pension plan is a closed insured pension for which future cash inflows consist of the Group’s entitlement to excess returns achieved by the insurance company and future cash outflows for premiums for price indexation of insured pensions. The net defined benefit obligation for this pension plan is based on an estimate of this future cash outflow for premiums. The Group’s entitlement to excess returns is not accounted for as an asset. Both the annual income from excess returns and expense for premiums for price indexation continue to be recognized through the statement of other comprehensive income.

Therefore the expected impact of these remaining defined benefit pension plans on future statements of profit or loss is not significant.

ANNUAL REPORT 2018 – BOSKALIS A L REPORT 2018 -- BOSKALIS