Ford Motor Company is changing its method for reporting pension and other postretirement employee benefits (OPEB) to provide a clearer view of Ford's operating performance and segment results.
"Ford has delivered consistently strong operating results since 2010. The change we are announcing today in how we report accumulated costs related to our pension and OPEB plans will show that our operating results were even stronger, particularly in North America and Europe," said Bob Shanks, Ford executive vice president and chief financial officer. "The change better aligns our operating results with our operating cash flow and makes our results more comparable to our major competitors. Taking this step was enabled by the pension de-risking strategy we announced in 2012 and have been implementing ever since."
Mark-to-market, also known as immediate recognition accounting, has been adopted by many large U.S. corporations. Under this method, which Ford adopted on Dec. 31, 2015, Ford will recognize pension and OPEB remeasurement gains and losses in the year incurred (generally in the fourth quarter) rather than amortizing them over many years. The remeasurement will be recognized centrally each year instead of in Ford's Automotive business units and will be reported as a special item since it is not reflective of the underlying operating results of Ford's automotive business. The change will have no effect on cash, pension funding requirements or employees' pension or OPEB benefits.
With this change, Ford's 2015 pre-tax profit, excluding special items, is expected to increase by about $1.5 billion and is now expected to be $10 billion to $11 billion. Ford has retrospectively applied this change and revised prior period results. The tables that follow contain revised financial information for 2013, 2014 and the first nine months of 2015.
