Cathay Pacific 2015 Annual Report Download - page 72

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 72 of the 2015 Cathay Pacific annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 116

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116

Cathay Pacific Airways Limited
70
Notes to the Financial Statements Statement of Financial Position
14. Retirement benefits
The Group operates various defined benefit and defined contribution retirement schemes for its employees in Hong
Kong and in certain overseas locations. The assets of these schemes are held in separate trustee-administered funds.
The retirement schemes in Hong Kong are registered under and comply with the Occupational Retirement Schemes
Ordinance and the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (“MPFSO”). Most of the employees engaged outside
Hong Kong are covered by appropriate local arrangements.
The Group operates the following principal schemes:
(a) Defined benefit retirement schemes
A defined benefit scheme is a retirement plan that defines the benefit that an employee will receive on retirement,
usually dependent on one or more factors such as age, years of service and compensation. The Group has an
obligation to provide participating employees with these benefits.
The Swire Group Retirement Benefit Scheme (“SGRBS”) in Hong Kong, in which the Company, Cathay Pacific
Catering Services (H.K.) Limited (“CPCS”) and Vogue Laundry Service Limited (“Vogue”) are participating employers,
provides resignation and retirement benefits to its members, which include the Company’s cabin attendants who
joined before September 1996 and other locally engaged employees who joined before June 1997, upon their
cessation of service. The Company, CPCS and Vogue meet the full cost of all benefits due by SGRBS to their
employee members, who are not required to contribute to the scheme.
Staff employed by the Company in Hong Kong on expatriate terms before April 1993 were eligible to join another
scheme, the Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Retirement Scheme (“CPALRS”). Both members and the Company
contribute to CPALRS.
The majority of the Group’s schemes are final salary guarantee lump sum defined benefit plans.
Contributions to the defined benefit retirement schemes are made in accordance with the funding rates
recommended by independent qualified actuaries to ensure that the plans will be able to meet their liabilities as they
become due. The funding rates are subject to annual review and are determined by taking into consideration the
difference between the market values of the plans’ assets and the present value of accrued past service liabilities,
on an on-going basis, as computed by reference to actuarial valuations. The principal schemes in Hong Kong are
valued annually by qualified actuaries for funding purposes under the provision of Hong Kong’s Occupational
Retirement Schemes Ordinance. For the year ended 31st December 2015, disclosures are based on valuations
prepared by Mercer (Hong Kong) Limited at 31st December 2015. For the year ended 31st December 2014,
disclosures are based on valuations prepared by Mercer (Hong Kong) Limited at 31st December 2012, which were
updated at 31st December 2014 by Cannon Trustees Limited, the main administration manager of the Group’s
defined benefit schemes.
Through its defined benefit retirement schemes the Group is exposed to a number of risks, the most significant of
which is market risk.
Market risk embodies the potential for losses and gains and includes price risk, interest rate risk and currency risk
as well as factors specific to an individual investment or its issuer or risk specific to a certain market. Market risk is
managed principally through diversification of the investments by the investment managers appointed. Investment
managers are governed by agreements that stipulate the performance objective of the investments, which is
referenced to a recognised benchmark and the predicated tracking error around this benchmark. An investment
committee monitors the overall market risk position on a quarterly basis.