Virgin Media 2008 Annual Report Download - page 198

VIRGIN MEDIA INVESTMENT HOLDINGS LIMITED AND SUBSIDIARIES
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued)
Note 11—Employee Benefit Plans (Continued)
Plan Assets
Our pension plan weighted-average asset allocations at December 31, 2008 and 2007 by asset
category were as follows:
December 31,
2008 2007
Asset Category
Equity Securities .................................... 33.2% 50.8%
Debt Securities ..................................... 55.2% 43.5%
Real Estate ....................................... 1.9% 2.1%
Hedge Funds ...................................... 9.0% —%
Other ............................................ 0.7% 3.6%
Total ............................................ 100.0% 100.0%
The trustees of the main defined benefit pension scheme, which makes up approximately 85% of
the assets of our two defined benefit pension plans, have in place an investment strategy that targets an
allocation of 40% equities, 10% hedge funds, 3% property and 47% bonds and cash, at December 31,
2008. The assets are managed by a number of fund managers, which means as markets move relative to
each other the assets move away from the target investment strategy. Relatively small deviations from
the target investment strategy are permitted; however rebalancing of the assets will be carried out from
time to time. As the main defined benefit pension scheme is now closed to new entrants, it is
anticipated that the investment strategy will move towards a higher proportion of bonds over time to
reflect the steadily maturing profile of liabilities and the improvement in the funding position.
There were no directly owned shares of Virgin Media’s common stock included in the equity
securities at December 31, 2008 or 2007.
Cash Flows
We expect to contribute a total of £13.5 million to our defined benefit pension plans during 2009.
Estimated Future Benefit Payments
The benefits expected to be paid out of the pension plans in total are set out below for each of
the next five years and the following five years in aggregate. The benefits expected to be paid are based
on the same assumptions used to measure our benefit obligation at December 31, 2008 and include
estimated future employee services (in millions):
Year ending December 31, Pension Benefits
2009 ............................................... £ 11.7
2010 ............................................... 12.7
2011 ............................................... 13.7
2012 ............................................... 14.8
2013 ............................................... 16.0
Years 2014–2018 ....................................... 101.5
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