Q15: In the 2009 outlook you mentioned that the Board
authorized the use of Caterpillar common stock
for pension funding and you expect the contribution
to be about $650 million. Why are you doing this
and how dilutive will it be?
A: To proactively address funding obligations, we
expect to contribute approximately $1 billion to
our pension plans (in the U.S. and abroad) in
2009. To provide greater financial flexibility,
we are planning to make voluntary contributions of
approximately $650 million in Caterpillar common
stock. Any company stock contribution will be made
to the U.S. pension plans and is not expected to
exceed 25 million shares. A contribution of
25 million shares would represent a 4.2 percent increase
in the total number of shares outstanding from the 602
million shares outstanding at the end of first quarter.