More About Private Equity Funds and Pension IOUs

As I discussed in my July 29, 2013 blog post entitled "Pension Liability Price Tag For Private Equity Funds And Their Investors," a recent court decision by the First Circuit could mean the difference between "good" deals and "bad" ones. In "Doubling Down on a Bad Bet: Liability for Portfolio Company Pension Obligations After Sun Capital" (August 5, 2013), ERISA trial attorney with the McCormack Firm, Stephen D. Rosenberg refers to this legal opinion as "tremendously significant" as it will directly impact how acquisitions are structured, "in terms of examining whether it is possible to legally structure the acquisition and ownership of a portfolio company in a manner which will insulate the acquirer from unfunded pension obligations or, if it is not certain whether that can be achieved, will at least make it as hard as possible for potential plaintiffs to recover, thus hopefully dissuading future lawsuits..."

As creator of the popular and insightful Boston ERISA & Insurance Litigation blog, Attorney Rosenberg talked about the imperative to think ahead. Instead of trying to fix a problem after an acquisition has take place, he references my recommendations, as a business expert, to thoroughly value "the pension exposures of the target company" and account "for that exposure financially in the purchase price."

School is still out as to whether these actions are being done to the extent they should be. I have worked on due diligence initiatives that included a forward-looking assessment of cash needs and investment considerations. However, if everyone was tackling this type of economic analysis, in conjunction with a legal review, there would be no headlines about post-deal pension surprises. In other words, there are obviously some buyers that have not done sufficient homework and end up paying more than they had anticipated. If that happens too often, a private equity fund's general partners are ultimately going to get push back from their limited partners such as other pension plans, endowments and foundations. Why? Post-transaction costs impede performance.

Attorney Rosenberg and I both agree that doing the right things, prior to the closing of a transaction, is a good offense. As relates to pension-centric due diligence by a private equity fund, he adds that "Do that correctly, and you have already accounted for the possibility of being forced to cover the portfolio company's exposure; do that incorrectly, and you may have - as occurred in Sun Capital - doubled down on a losing proposition."

Source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/PensionRiskMatters/~3/7UHtdWRqys8/

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