Legal & General (L&G) has insured £129 million of liabilities for Unilever’s Uniac Pension Fund for overseas workers.
The Uniac fund was established as a “Section 615” plan to cater for UK-based employees of the consumer goods giant who had been seconded overseas. The buy-in deal is the largest such de-risking transaction to date for a Section 615 pension, L&G said.
Lyn Williams, chairman of trustees of the Uniac Pension Fund, said the buy-in was a “central part of our strategy to simplify the scheme and align a significant portion of our assets and liabilities”.
Clive Wellsteed, partner at LCP and lead adviser on the transaction, added: “Section 615 pension plans operate under different governing legislation to most defined benefit schemes and have some additional features, including the ability for new dependents to fully commute their pension for cash.
“This innovative buy-in provides comprehensive coverage of these features and offers excellent value for money to Unilever and the trustees.”
Meanwhile, Rothesay Life has boasted of a “pipeline… predominantly full of buy-outs” after insuring the 600-member Panasonic Pension Scheme.
Managing Director Tom Pearce said Rothesay Life had seen “high profile corporate interest” in full pension fund buyouts, adding that “as the market conditions remain favourable we expect sponsor interest to continue”.
Neither Panasonic nor Rothesay Life revealed details of the transaction, but the insurer said it had established a “deferred premium structure” to offer Panasonic “certainty that no surplus would be trapped”.
Europe has seen a number landmark de-risking deals this year, most notably BT’s record-breaking longevity swap transaction with the Prudential Insurance Company of America.
In the Netherlands, Aegon insured 28,000 members of two miners’ pension funds, AMF and BFM, in one of the country’s biggest ever buyout transactions.
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