黑洞社区

A potential restructure of Halcrow鈥檚 heavily indebted pension scheme has been blocked by the High Court, putting 2,500 jobs at the firm at risk.

Halcrow鈥檚 US parent company CH2M had sought to transfer its subsidiary鈥檚 pension pot into a new scheme, enabling it to reduce payments to pensioners and cut the scheme鈥檚 debt.

But the High Court has blocked the move - a decision 黑洞社区 understands could push Halcrow into administration, putting the jobs at risk. Halcrow now trades under the CH2M brand, but still files accounts at Companies House as Halcrow Group.

According to the High Court judgment, the Halcrow pension scheme (HPS) has a 拢600m deficit, which CH2M is struggling to service.

Halcrow and its pension scheme trustees had agreed a transfer which would have seen the current pension scheme wound up and the assets and liabilities transferred to a new scheme.

But High Court judge Mrs Justice Asplin ruled CH2M鈥檚 proposal of creating a new scheme would have been illegal. Halcrow and the pension scheme trustees are now trying to devise a new solution.

The judgment was handed down in December, but was only recently made public due to commercial reasons.

In the judgment, Mrs Justice Asplin ruled pension legislation meant members鈥� pension pots couldn鈥檛 be transferred to a new scheme without each member giving their individual consent. But she said: 鈥淗ad it been necessary and had I taken a different view in relation to the legal issues, I would have approved the trustees鈥� decision to enter into the transaction.鈥�

Accounts filed at Companies House earlier this year for Halcrow Holdings admitted that parent company CH2M is 鈥渃onstrained by the obligations of [Halcrow], in particular its pension liabilities鈥�.

They add: 鈥淚f those obligations cannot be restructured in a mutually beneficial way, then one option for the ultimate parent would be withdraw its [pension] funding for the company and the group [Halcrow].鈥�

The High Court judgment said Halcrow is 鈥渉eavily balance sheet insolvent鈥� and is 鈥渙nly able to continue as a going concern because of substantial support鈥� from CH2M.

It was also suggested in the judgment that unless the transaction went ahead, Halcrow - bought by CH2M in 2011 - 鈥渨ill be placed into administration and as a result HPS will in all likelihood go into the PPF (Pension Protection Fund).鈥�

CH2M argued benefits to members in the new scheme would be the same as the previous scheme but increases would only be at the statutory minimum, instead of the higher rises in the current scheme.

However, the Halcrow Pensioners Association (HPA) said the proposed scheme was 鈥渦nacceptable鈥� and claimed its benefits would be at or less than 1% above PPF levels. In response CH2M said it was 鈥渨rong for the HPA to suggest that鈥� and the proposed scheme would be 鈥渃onsiderably better for members than the compensation available from the Pensions Protection Fund鈥�.