One in ten FTSE 100 organisations have pension plans that are greater than their market value.
According to research from Pension Capital Strategies (PCS), a division of insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson, over the last 12 months, the total disclosed pension liabilities of the FTSE 100 have risen from £378 billion to £434 billion.
Fourteen organisations have disclosed pension liabilities of more than £10 billion, while 27 have disclosed liabilities of less than £100 million.
BT, British Airways and Invensys all have pension liabilities which are more than double their market value, at £43 billion, £16.8 billion and £5.4 billion respectively.
The total pension deficit of the FTSE 100 was an estimated £73 billion at the end of June, an improvement of £17 billion on last year.
Additionally, there has been a significant increase in the funding of pension deficits. Last year saw total deficit funding of £11.8 billion, up from £4 billion the previous year.
Royal Dutch Shell had the largest deficit contribution at over £2.7 billion, however 57 FTSE 100 companies also reported significant deficit funding contributions.
The research also found there has been a marked decline in the provision of ongoing defined benefit (DB) schemes. The reduction in total service cost from £7 billion in the previous year to £6 billion in the current year represents a 15% decline in employee pension provision.
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While only five organisations disclosed a pension surplus in their most recent annual report and accounts, 80 organisations disclosed pension deficits.
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