Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance, a MetLife subsidiary, has entered into a $1.8 bn pension risk transfer deal with Eastman Kodak following the company’s decision to terminate its longstanding Kodak Retirement Income Plan (KRIP).
The agreement shifts responsibility for retirement benefits covering about 27,000 participants and beneficiaries to MetLife, according to Kodak’s SEC filing.
Roughly 3,600 active and deferred participants instead chose lump-sum payouts. Kodak said it already settled about $76 mn in obligations on Oct. 1 and expects to pay another $157 mn by Nov. 1.
Once the PRT closes and payouts are made, Kodak said all obligations under KRIP will be fully extinguished.
The company expects surplus assets from the plan to revert to Kodak and its newer Kodak Cash Balance Plan in December 2025.
Those assets, Kodak said, will largely go toward repaying term debt, leaving the company with what it described as its strongest balance sheet in years and “virtually net debt free.”
For MetLife, the Kodak transaction adds to a string of sizable pension risk transfer wins.
Earlier in 2025, the group completed a $10 bn inaugural reinsurance deal with Bermuda’s Chariot Re, covering structured settlement annuities and group annuity contracts linked to pension risk transfer business.
