LITTELFUSE INC DE

11. Benefit Plans

The Company has Company-sponsored and mandatory defined benefit pension plans covering employees in the United Kingdom ("U.K."), Germany, the Philippines, China, Japan, Mexico, Italy, and France. The amount of the retirement benefits provided under the plans is generally based on years of service and final average pay.

On October 4, 2024, the Company entered into a definitive agreement to purchase a group annuity contract, under which an insurance company will be required to pay pension payments to the Company’s United Kingdom pension plan to match required pension payments until a later buyout, at which point the insurance company will directly pay and administer the benefits to the plan's participants, or to their designated beneficiaries. The purchase of this group annuity contract will reduce the Company’s outstanding pension benefit obligation by approximately $23 million, representing approximately 33% of the total obligations of the Company’s qualified pension plans, and will be funded with pension plan assets and additional cash on hand. In connection with this transaction, the Company currently expects to record a one-time non-cash settlement charge in 2026 estimated between $6 million and $8 million, reflecting the accelerated recognition of a portion of unamortized actuarial losses in the plan. The actual settlement charge could differ from this estimate due to final data and plan wind-up expenses.

Benefit plan related information is as follows for the years 2024 and 2023:

Amounts recognized in the Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 28, 2024 and December 30, 2023 consist of the following:

The amounts included in accumulated other comprehensive loss in the Consolidated Balance Sheets, excluding tax effects that have not yet been recognized as components of net periodic benefit costs as of December 28, 2024 and December 30, 2023 were as follows:

The pre-tax amounts recognized in other comprehensive (loss) income in 2024 and 2023 were as follows:

Due to the signing of the group annuity contract for the U.K. pension plan, the liabilities of the plan were remeasured as of October 4, 2024 resulting in an increase of $3.8 million to unamortized actuarial loss within other comprehensive income (loss). In addition, the net actuarial loss during 2024 as compared to 2023 were impacted by lower discount rates in 2024 as compared to 2023.

The components of net periodic benefit costs for the fiscal years 2024, 2023, and 2022 are as follows:

Weighted average assumptions used to determine net periodic benefit cost for the fiscal years 2024, 2023, and 2022 are as follows:

The accumulated benefit obligation for the plans was $58.7 million and $60.6 million as of December 28, 2024 and December 30, 2023, respectively.

The following table provides a summary of under-funded or unfunded pension benefit plans with projected benefit obligations in excess of plan assets as of December 28, 2024 and December 30, 2023:

The following table provides a summary of under-funded or unfunded pension benefit plans with accumulated benefit obligations in excess of plan assets as of December 28, 2024 and December 30, 2023:

Weighted average assumptions used to determine benefit obligations as of December 28, 2024, December 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022 are as follows:

Expected benefit payments to be paid to participants for the fiscal year ending are as follows:

The Company expects to make approximately $1.2 million of contributions to the plans and pay $2.1 million of benefits directly in 2025.

The Company also sponsors certain post-employment plans in foreign countries and other statutory benefit plans. For the fiscal years ended December 28, 2024, December 30, 2023, and December 31, 2022, the Company recorded $5.0 million, $1.5 million and $1.9 million expense, respectively, in Cost of sales, Restructuring, impairment, and other charges, and Other (income) expense, netwithin the Consolidated Statements of Net Income. As of December 28, 2024 and December 30, 2023, the Company reported benefit liabilities of $4.4 million and $4.8 million for these plans, of which $1.5 million and $1.7 million was recorded in Accrued liabilities and $2.9 million and $3.1 million was recorded in Other long-term liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheets, respectively. For the fiscal years ended December 28, 2024 and December 30, 2023, the pre-tax amounts recognized in other comprehensive income (loss) for these plans were $0.2 million and $1.3 million, respectively. For the fiscal year ended December 28, 2024, the expense reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive loss to earnings as components of net periodic benefit costs was $3.3 million. For the fiscal year ended December 30, 2023, the expense reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive loss to earnings as components of net periodic benefit costs was $0.4 million, including $0.5 million net settlement loss.

Defined Benefit Plan Assets

Based upon analysis of the target asset allocation and historical returns by type of investment, the Company has assumed that the expected long-term rate of return will be 5.5% on plan assets. Assets are invested to maximize long-term return taking into consideration timing of settlement of the retirement liabilities and liquidity needs for benefits payments. Pension plan assets were invested as follows, and were not materially different from the target asset allocation:

The Company segregated its plan assets by the following major categories and level for determining their fair value as of December 28, 2024 and December 30, 2023. All plan assets that are valued using the net asset value per share (“NAV”) practical expedient have not been included within the fair value hierarchy, but are separately disclosed.

Cash and cash equivalents – Carrying value approximates fair value. As such, these assets were classified as Level 1. The Company also invests in certain short-term investments which are valued using the amortized cost method. Lastly, the Company has certain pooled pension funds that have short-term investments with third party mutual funds that are valued at unit value per share at measurement date. As such, these assets were classified as Level 2.

Equity – The values of individual equity securities were based on quoted prices in active markets. As such, these assets are classified as Level 1. The Company has certain pooled pension funds which have mutual funds with underlying investments in certain equity securities that are not quoted on active markets; therefore, they were classified as Level 2.

Fixed income – Fixed income securities are typically priced based on a last trade basis and are exchange-traded. Accordingly, the Company classified fixed income securities as Level 1. The Company has certain pooled pension funds which have mutual funds with underlying investments in fixed income securities and funds priced based on a valuation model rather than a last trade basis and are not exchange-traded. As such, they were classified as Level 2. The Company also invests in certain fixed income funds which are valued at the NAV.

Insurance contracts and other– This category includes pooled pension funds which have mutual funds with underlying investments in other assets and liabilities including alternatives priced based on a valuation model and are not exchange-traded. These were classified as Level 2. This category also includes insurance contracts that are valued by the re-insurer with the valuation inputs being not highly observable or traded on an open market. Accordingly, insurance contracts were categorized as Level 3. Lastly, this category includes other assets and liabilities including futures or swaps.

Bulk Annuity Contract –Bulk annuity contract includes a U.K insurance policy issued by an authorized U.K. life insurer. This bulk annuity contract is valued by the re-insurer with the valuation inputs being not highly observable or traded on an open market. Accordingly, this contract was categorized as Level 3.

For any Level 2 and Level 3 plan assets, management reviews significant investments on a periodic basis including investigation of unusual fluctuations in price or returns and obtaining an understanding of the pricing methodology to assess the reliability of third-party pricing estimates.

The valuation methodologies described above may generate a fair value calculation that may not be indicative of net realizable value or future fair values. While the Company believes the valuation methodologies used are appropriate, the use of different methodologies or assumptions in calculating fair value could result in different amounts. The Company invests in assets in which valuation is determined by the NAV. The Company believes that the NAV is representative of fair value at the reporting date, as there are no significant restrictions on redemption of these investments or other reasons to indicate that the investment would be redeemed at an amount different than the NAV.

The following table presents the Company’s pension plan assets measured at fair value by classification within the fair value hierarchy as of December 28, 2024:

The following table presents the Company’s pension plan assets measured at fair value by classification within the fair value hierarchy as of December 30, 2023:

The fair value measurement of plan assets using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3) changed during 2024 and 2023 due to the following:

Defined Contribution Plan

The Company also maintains a 401(k) savings plan covering substantially all U.S. employees. The Company matches 100% of the employee’s annual contributions for the first 4% of the employee’s eligible compensation. The Company may provide an additional discretionary match to participants and made discretionary matches of 2% of the employee’s eligible compensation for each of the fiscal years ended December 28, 2024, December 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022. Employees are immediately vested in their contributions plus actual earnings thereon, as well as the Company contributions. Company matching contributions amounted to $6.5 million, $7.7 million, and $5.5 million in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively.

Non-qualified Supplemental Retirement and Savings Plan

The Company has a non-qualified Supplemental Retirement and Savings Plan which provides additional retirement benefits for certain management employees and named executive officers by allowing participants to defer a portion of their annual compensation. The Company maintains accounts for participants through which participants make investment elections. The investments are subject to the claims of the Company’s creditors and the Company is responsible for the payment of all benefits under the plan from its general assets. As of December 28, 2024, there was $23.3 million of marketable securities related to the plan included in Other long-term assets and $23.3 million of accrued compensation benefits included in Other long-term liabilities. The marketable securities are classified as Level 1 under the fair value hierarchy as they are maintained in mutual funds with readily determinable fair value. The Company made matching contributions to the plan of $0.5 million, $0.6 million, and $0.2 million in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively.