A federal agency is picking up the pension plans of more than 21,000 retirees of the defunct A&P supermarket chain, The Journal News reported today. However, the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said that pension plans that cover most of the retirees from the company's shuttered Lower Hudson Valley stores will not have to be bailed out. The 150-year-old A&P supermarket chain filed for bankruptcy last year, the company's second chapter 11 filing in five years. The store sales raised more than $900 million to pay off loans and debt, but the sales also left a shortfall in A&P's pension benefits because many of the buyers did not agree to take over the pension plans. For instance, three of the companies' pension plans, which cover more than 21,000 A&P retirees, were left underfunded by a combined $291 million. That includes retirees who were in the Pathmark Stores Inc. Pension Plan.
