Author: LMI Newsdesk
The Ford Pension Scheme for Senior Staff has agreed a £340m ($450m) partial scheme buy-in with insurer Scottish Widows. This deal still leaves significant pension liabilities on the table for the US auto manufacturer which has more than 120 schemes spread across 36 different countries. Edinburgh-based Scottish Widows has been an active player in the UK pension de-risking market in 2022. In June it struck a $650m deal with the pension scheme of high end retailer Harrods, while in the same month it took on $200m worth of pension liabilities from fellow insurer Aegon UK as part of a broader…
The Life Insurance Settlement Association’s (LISA) 28th Annual Fall Life Settlement Conference will bring together leading experts from across the life settlement industry
US aerospace and defence firm AAR CORP has terminated its pension plan and transferred all its obligations to a pair of life carriers: American National Insurance Company and American National Life Insurance Company of New York.The deal closed on August 22 and was announced when the firm made an 8K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the filing, the AAR Corp Retirement Plan has bought a single premium group annuity contract that transfers all the pension scheme’s obligations to the two insurers.The deal covers 900 plan members, plus their beneficiaries, of the Illinois-based firm and will…
The ITB Pension Funds’ Open Fund has signed a $330m (£290m) buy-in deal with UK retirement specialist Just Group, which means that all members’ benefits have now been insured. This is the fifth and final transaction the ITB fund has conducted and, in a press release announcing the move, LCP ‑ who advised on the deal ‑ said that the timing had been accelerated following a recent material improvement in the scheme’s funding position. The ITB Pension Fund was set-up in 1983 and provides retirement benefits to members of the Construction Industry Training Board. Just Group has been active in…
The pension scheme of UK ferry operator P&O has completed a £440m ($560m) buy-in with specialist insurer Rothesay which means that all member benefits are now insured. This is the second such buy-in deal conducted by the P&O pension scheme; the first was in 2007, with the now defunct buy-in firm Paternoster, which Rothesay acquired as part of its purchase of the insurer in 2011. The latest buy-in secures the benefits of 5,300 members and was agreed in August. It is the second deal announced by Rothesay in August and follows a $330m buy-in with the Smith & Nephew UK…
The Canadian pension risk transfer market (PRT) saw a record level of activity in 2022, with a total of 155 deals worth a combined C$7.8bn ($5.8bn) struck last year, according to a recent report by Eckler’s, actuarial consultancy. According to the Ontario-based Eckler’s sixth annual report on the Canadian PRT market, this followed a record level of activity in 2021, with both years well ahead of the C$4.5bn worth of deals transacted in 2020. Eckler’s report said that Sun Life is the market leader with a 27% market share of the Canadian PRT sector in 2022, and the insurer currently has 120,000…
UK pension risk transfer specialist (PRT) Rothesay has signed a £260m ($330m) buy-in deal with the UK pension fund of Smith & Nephew.The multinational medical device manufacturer has now completely insured all of its members benefits following a series of previous deals inked with Rothesay in 2013, 2017 and 2022, respectively.The latest tranche of the pension fund’s de-risking process sees close to 1,900 pensioners and dependents, plus 2,315 deferred members’ liabilities, transferred to the UK insurer.LCP acted for the trustee as the lead broker on the transaction. Eversheds Sutherland and DLA Piper provided legal advice to Rothesay, and Travers Smith…
US clean energy firm Public Service Enterprise Group has completed a $1bn pension ‘lift out’ with the Prudential Insurance Company of America (Prudential Financial). The New York state-based renewables outfit made the deal public in its second quarter results when it stated that the pension benefits of 2,000 retirees from its PSEG Power & Other subsidiary would be insured as a result of the transaction. A ‘lift-out’ refers to the partial insurance of a scheme rather than a complete buy-in or plan termination. According to the press release, Prudential Financial will take over all pension payments by the end of…
US breakfast food firm Kellogg’s has offloaded $590m of its liabilities linked to its UK pension scheme to an undisclosed insurer. The Michigan-based firm revealed the deal in its latest 10-Q filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which stated the transaction closed in May. The deal was structured as a buy-in, meaning that the cereal maker retains responsibility for the administration and payment of the pensions, with the longevity and investment risk sitting on the insurer’s balance sheet. Kellogg’s move follows a $268m buy-in for its UK plan in December 2022 and the third major pension de-risking move…
GWG Holdings, which invests in a number of insurance markets, including life settlements, has completed its bankruptcy process, according to a filing with the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. According to the filing, the bankruptcy plan was approved by the court on June 20 and became effective on August 1 2023. GWG first filed for bankruptcy in April 2022 and the move was sparked by its default on bond payments two months earlier. A large number of retail investors put money in GWG, meaning the firm has 27,000 creditors. Mayer Brown served as restructuring counsel to…