Unisys has bought a $250m group annuity contract from F&G Annuities & Life which will transfer a substantial portion of the tech firm’s US pension liabilities to the insurer.
Two F&G subsidiaries – Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company, and Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company of New York – will take responsibility for pension benefits for approximately 3,900 retirees and beneficiaries.
As part of the deal, Unisys expects to make a one-time, non-cash, pre-tax settlement charge of approximately $244m.
The annuity purchase will be made by the pension trust meaning there will be no impact on Unisys cash position.
This is the latest in several pension de-risking moves by Unisys both in the US and for its global subsidiaries. In 2021 it offloaded $280m of US retiree obligations to MassMutual, having previously twice bought out deferred former employees benefits via one-off cash payments
The firm transferred its Dutch and Swiss pension plans to multi-employer schemes in 2021, actions which removed both scheme’s liabilities from the firm’s balance sheet.
Unisys annuity purchase is the first publicly announced US pension risk transfer deal since specialist materials manufacturer Owens Corning signed a $291m bulk annuity transaction with an unnamed insurer at the end of October.
