The UK arm of aerospace and defence firm Thales has offloaded its pension scheme to Rothesay Life in a £2.7bn ($.34bn) deal with the insurer.
The transaction was announced on December 1 and covers the whole of the Thales UK pension scheme.
It means Rothesay takes responsibility for the benefits of over 16,000 fund members; 10,512 pensioners and dependents as well as 5,915 deferred members.
The deal included an undisclosed cash payment by Thales and involved the transfer of over £750m of illiquid assets held within the pension scheme to Rothesay.
Lead transaction advisers were PWC and A&O’ Rothesay received legal advice from Travers Smith. Gowling WLG, Mercer and Momentum advised the scheme trustee.
In a press release announcing the deal, Rothesay said that the Thales transaction means it has written close to £13bn of new business covering 12 separate pension schemes in 2023 to date.
Other deals completed by the insurer this year include a $5bn deal with UK retailer Co-op in November and a $560m deal with ferry operator P&O in August.
