SEC Company Response from HASBRO, INC. (HAS) (CIK 0000046080) (HAS) — Aug 14, 2018
HASBRO, INC. (HAS) (CIK 0000046080)
Date: Aug. 14, 2018 · CIK: 0000046080 · Accession: 0000046080-18-000121
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 001-06682
Referenced dates: August 3, 2018
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CORRESP
1
filename1.htm
August 14, 2018
Division of
Corporation Finance
Office of
Transportation and Leisure
United States
Securities and
Exchange Commission
Washington,
D.C. 20549
Attn: Heather
Clark
Claire Erlanger
Re:
Hasbro, Inc.
From 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2017
Form 10-Q for the Fiscal Quarter Ended April 1, 2018
Form 8-K furnished July 23, 2018
File No. 001-06682
Dear Ms. Clark and Ms. Erlanger:
This letter is submitted on behalf
of Hasbro, Inc. (the “Company”), in response to the comments that you
have provided on behalf of the staff of the Division of Corporation Finance
(the “Staff”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”)
in your letter dated August 3, 2018.
For your convenience, we have set
forth the original comments from your letter in bold and italicized typeface to
which we are responding.
Form 10-Q for the Fiscal
Quarter Ended April 1, 2018
Financial Statements
Condensed Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (8) Pension and
Postretirement Benefits, page 1
1. We note your response to
prior comment 2. Given that it appears as though a curtailment of benefits
under your defined benefit pension plans occurred in February 2018, with full
settlement occurring in 2019, please tell us whether the remeasurement at
February 28, 2018 resulted in a gain or loss and how you accounted for such
amount. As part of your response, please tell us the accounting literature you
relied upon. Also, in this regard, please explain to us why your response
indicates that you did not record a curtailment or settlement in the first
quarter of 2018. Please refer to paragraphs 236-238 of ASC 715-30-55.
Response
The Company notes the SEC’s
additional comments on the Company’s February 2018 amendment to its U.S.
defined benefit pension plan, and has reviewed the referenced example in ASC
715-30-55, paragraphs 236-238. The Company notes that this example is not
entirely applicable to its facts and circumstances. Specifically, the Company’s
plan participants did not “cease to accrue additional pension
benefits” as a result of the February 2018 amendment since
the Company has already ceased the accrual of participant benefits in prior
years.
To further clarify
its accounting treatment of the plan amendment, the Company provides its
response with a timeline and ordering of the steps taken (to be taken) by the
Company to record the plan termination as follows:
·
Step One (2007 and 2015) The Company amended its
U.S. defined benefit pension plans to eliminate the future accrual of plan
benefits to participants. The Company recorded immaterial curtailment losses
in 2007 and 2015 when the plans were amended. No future benefits accrued to
participants from the time the plans were amended. This is consistent with the
guidance provided in ASC 715-30-35-76.
·
Step Two (First Quarter ended April 1, 2018) The
Company terminated its U.S. defined benefit pension plan through an amendment
executed in the quarter ended April 1, 2018. The amendment was determined to
be a significant event under ASC 715-30-35-68 requiring a remeasurement in the
interim financial statements. This remeasurement adjusted actuarial
assumptions for the fact the plan would no longer exist through the foreseeable
future. No curtailment gains or losses were required to be recorded since no
future benefits had accrued since the amendments made in Step One above.
·
Step Three (expected fiscal 2019) The Company will
settle the U.S. defined benefit pension plan through payment of all previously
accrued benefits to plan participants. At such time, any accumulated losses
or gains including cumulative remeasurement gains and losses will be recorded
to earnings and removed from accumulated other comprehensive income following
the guidance in ASC 715-30-35-79
This timeline and ordering of the
Company’s application of ASC 715 is more fully explained below:
1.
Curtailment
The Glossary of Topic 715 defines a
curtailment as "an event that significantly reduces the expected years of
future service of present employees or eliminates for a significant number of
employees the accrual of defined benefits for some or all of their future
services."
As stated in our first response
letter, the Company’s U.S defined benefit pension plans were amended in 2007
(non-union plan) and 2015 (union plan) to eliminate the future accrual of plan
benefits and therefore participants have not accrued benefits since those
dates. The Company refers to these amendments as “freezing” the U.S. defined
benefit pension plans. At the time such plans were amended “frozen”, the
Company recorded curtailment losses that were not material.
As stated above, curtailment losses
were recorded at the time the plan was frozen in 2007 and 2015, at which time
all future benefit accruals were eliminated. Due to the actions taken in 2007
and 2015, the plan amendment in February 2018 did not eliminate any future
accruals. Therefore, the 2018 amendment did not meet the definition of a
curtailment.
2.
Remeasurement on February 28,2018
As disclosed in the Form 10-Q for
the fiscal period ended April 1, 2018,
“In connection with the
decision to terminate the Plan, the Company remeasured the projected benefit
obligation based on the expected Plan termination costs. This remeasurement
utilized a discount rate of 3.2% compared to the discount rate of 3.7% utilized in the December 31, 2017 measurement
and resulted in an increase in the projected benefit obligation of $35,192 with offsetting
amounts recorded to accumulated other comprehensive losses and deferred taxes.”
The plan amendment to terminate the
U.S. defined benefit pension plan was determined to be a significant event
requiring remeasurement for the interim financial statements.
Recognition of the remeasurement
loss was recorded to other comprehensive income in the first quarter in
accordance with ASC 715-30-25-5 which states, “Upon remeasurement, a business
entity shall adjust its statement of financial position in a subsequent interim
period to reflect the overfunded or underfunded status of the plan consistent
with that measurement date”. ASC 715-30-35-19 states, “Because gains and
losses may reflect refinements in estimates as well as real changes in economic
values and because some gains in one period may be offset by losses in another
or vice versa, this Subtopic does not require recognition of gains and losses
as components of net pension cost of the period in which they arise.” In
accordance with this guidance, the Company’s policy is to not recognize
gains and losses as components of net periodic pension cost in the period in
which they arise. Rather, the remeasurement loss was recorded as a decrease to
other comprehensive income in accordance with ASC 715-30-35-21 which states
that, “Gains and losses that are not recognized immediately as a
component of net periodic pension cost shall be recognized as increases or
decreases in other comprehensive income as they arise.”
As noted in the Company’s above
response, the remeasurement was not accompanied by a curtailment gain or loss
as no future benefits had accrued to plan participants since the Company froze
the U.S defined benefit plan in 2007 and 2015.
3.
Settlement Expected Fiscal 2019
Upon settlement of
the pension obligation, expected to occur in 2019, the Company will recognize
in earnings the accumulated losses related to its U.S. defined benefit pension
plan, in accordance with the following guidance within ASC 715-30-35:
“35-79
The maximum gain or loss subject to recognition in earnings when a pension
obligation is settled is the net gain or loss remaining in accumulated other
comprehensive income plus any transition asset remaining in accumulated other
comprehensive income from initial application of this Subtopic. That maximum
amount includes any gain or loss first measured at the time of settlement.”
In accordance with ASC 715-30-35-81,
upon settlement in fiscal 2019, the Company will again remeasure plan assets
and the projected benefit obligation as of the date the settlement occurs to
determine the maximum gain or loss to be recognized to settle the entire
projected benefit obligation.
Form 8-K furnished July 23,
2018
Exhibit 99, page 1
2. We
refer to the non-GAAP reconciliations at the end of exhibit 99. Please tell us
how the amounts in the column "impact of above items" in the second
to last table on the last page were determined. We note that the adjustments
refer to the impact of the items in the table above concerning costs of the
Toys 'R' Us liquidation, severance and tax reform, however, the amounts are
different. Please reconcile these amounts and provide a more fulsome
explanation of the adjusting amounts in your disclosure
Response
The amounts in the column “impact
of above items” reflect the following:
·
Operating Profit (Loss): Pre-tax impacts of the Toys 'R'
Us liquidation and severance, totaling $87,777.
·
Income tax expense (benefit): The impact from U.S. Tax Reform, as
well as the tax-effect of the Toys 'R' Us liquidation and severance
adjustments, totaling $37,084.
·
The total of these non-GAAP items of $124,861 agree to the total
of the after-tax non-GAAP adjustments reflected in the above referenced table.
In the attached exhibit 1, the
Company reflects the revisions (noted in red) it will make to future filings,
to better reflect the non-GAAP reconciliation.
If you have any questions or desire further information
regarding the Company’s responses, please contact me at (401) 727-5500.
Sincerely,
/s/ Deborah Thomas
Deborah Thomas
Executive Vice President
and Chief Financial Officer
(Duly Authorized Officer
and Principal Financial Officer)
Exhibit 1
HASBRO, INC.
SUPPLEMENTAL
FINANCIAL DATA
RECONCILIATION
OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES
(Unaudited)
(Thousands of
Dollars)
Net
Earnings (Loss) and Earnings (Loss) per Share Excluding the After-Tax Impact of Toys"R"Us,
Severance
and Tax Reform
Six Months Ended
Diluted
Diluted
July 1,
Per Share
July 2,
Per Share
(all
adjustments reported after-tax)
2018
Amount (1)
2017
Amount
Net Earnings
(Loss), as Reported
$
(52,193)
$
(0.42)
$
136,322
$
1.07
Incremental costs
impact of Toys"R"Us (2)
61,372
0.49
-
-
Severance (3)
15,699
0.12
-
-
Impact of Tax
Reform (4)
47,790
0.38
-
-
Net Earnings, as
Adjusted
$
72,668
$
0.58
$
136,322
$
1.07
(1) Diluted Per Share Amount for the impact
of Toys"R"Us, severance and Tax Reform and net earnings,
as adjusted, for
the six months ended July 1, 2018 are calculated using dilutive shares of
126,215.
(2) In the first quarter of 2018,
Toys"R"Us announced a liquidation of its U.S. operations, as well
as other retail
impacts around
the globe. As a result, the Company recognized incremental bad debt expense
on outstanding
Toys"R"Us
receivables, royalty expense, inventory obsolescence as well as other related
costs.
(3) In the first quarter of 2018, the
Company incurred severance charges, primarily outside the U.S., related to
accelerating
actions associated with a new go-to-market strategy designed to be more
omni-channel and
e-commerce
focused. These charges were included in Corporate and Eliminations.
(4) Represents the adjustment of certain
provisional amounts recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017 based on
additional
guidance issued by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue
Service in the
first quarter of
2018.
The impact of the
above items on Operating Profit (Loss), and impacted segments, Income Taxes
and Net Earnings (Loss)
for the six months
ended July 1, 2018 is as follows:
Excluding
% Net
Impact of
Impact of
% Net
YTD June 2018
As Reported
Revenues
Above Items
Above Items
Revenues
Operating Profit
(Loss)
$
7,169
0.4%
$
87,777
$
94,946
5.9%
U.S. and Canada
Segment
52,848
6.4%
52,277
105,125
12.8%
International
Segment
(55,915)
-8.4%
11,151
(44,764)
-6.7%
Income tax
expense (benefit)
31,929
2.0%
(37,084)
(5,155)
-0.3%
Net Earnings (Loss) (1)
(52,193)
124,861
72,668
(1) The Operating Profit adjustments of
$87,777 combined with the income tax adjustments of $37,084 make up the total
after-tax impact of
$124,861.
Quarter Ended
Six Months Ended
July 1,
July 2,
July 1,
July 2,
Reconciliation of EBITDA
2018
2017
2018
2017
Net Earnings
(Loss)
$
60,299
$
67,723
$
(52,193)
$
136,322
Interest
Expense
22,803
24,224
45,612
48,680
Income Taxes
(including tax reform)
7,825
19,163
31,929
21,401
Depreciation
36,071
38,089
62,292
65,791
Amortization of
Intangibles
4,554
7,881
11,032
15,762
EBITDA
$
131,552
$
157,080
$
98,672
$
287,956
Impact of
Toys"R"Us and Severance
-
-
(87,777)
-
Adjusted
EBITDA
$
131,552
$
157,080
$
186,449
$
287,956