Atos Origin to restructure pension scheme

PARIS (Reuters) - French technology services group Atos Origin (ATOS.PA) said on Monday it had reached an agreement with the trustees of its main defined benefit pension arrangements in the UK to restructure its pension scheme there.

Atos Origin said it would replace the company defined benefit schemes by defined contribution schemes as of April 2008 and improve the conditions of the defined contribution schemes for all UK employees.

It said that out of the net pension provision of 220 million euros (159.5 million pounds) held in Atos Origin consolidated accounts in respect of the schemes concerned by this agreement, it would accelerate the funding of the existing pension deficit by 71 million euros in 2008.

The move would result in an increase in planned assets as reported by the group in its accounts and a decrease of corresponding provisions, at current market conditions.

The existing UK defined benefit obligations would be simplified and is expected to further reduce pensions liabilities reported by the group in its accounts by about 80 million euros.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Valerie Lee)