AT&T to post $1 bn loss in Q4 on pension, retirement plans rejig

AT&T Inc, the largest US pay TV operator, said on Friday it would record a pre-tax loss of about USD1 billion in the fourth quarter, related to an annual remeasurement of pension and post-employment benefit plans.

AT&T, the No.2 US wireless carrier, also estimated reporting net subscriber additions for the quarter ended Dec. 31, mainly driven by the addition of more than 900,000 domestic wireless subscribers.

The company did not quantify the net subscriber additions.

AT&T also estimated there were more than 200,000 net additions of paying customers for its video service in the quarter, entirely driven by DirecTV Now.

DirectTV Now is a streaming television service AT&T launched to help drive sales in a saturated cell phone market.

AT&T said it decreased its assumed discount rates used to measure pension obligations to 4.4 percent from 4.6 percent and the discount rate to measure post-retirement obligation to 4.3 percent from 4.5 percent.

That, AT&T estimated, resulted in a loss of about USD 3 billion, which was substantially offset by better-than-assumed claims, slightly higher-than-expected asset returns and demographic changes.

AT&T said the loss would not affect the operating results in its various divisions and would be included as an adjustment in its fourth-quarter report.

The company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Jan. 25. Its stock was up 0.37 percent at USD 41.15 in premarket trading on Friday.