PLANO, Texas — J.C. Penney Co. reached a deal with about 12,000 retirees and beneficiaries to accept a lump-sum payment and settle pension obligations, helping reduce the amount that the department-store chain will have to pay by as much as 35 percent.
The company won’t need to make any cash contribution, and Prudential Financial Inc. will settle a “substantial” amount of pension benefit obligations, J.C. Penney said in a statement Friday. It has $5 billion in U.S. pension obligations.
The 113-year-old retailer is part of a growing list of companies rethinking their pension plans.
