(February 9, 2010) — Pension Corporation is looking to complete 600 million pounds ($942 million) in fundraising as UK companies increasingly seek to reduce risks in their pension schemes and offload liabilities, the Financial Times reported.
“Pension fund trustees are coming to see us as the market leader and the value of this cannot be underestimated,” said Pension Corp Chairman Sir Mark Weinberg to the FT.
JPMorgan is taking the lead with coordinating the capital-raising, which would be used to back new deals taking over liabilities of closed pension schemes, books of pensions in payment, or deferred pensions, according to the FT.
Recently, Pension Corp. signed a 61 million pound ($96.84 million) deal to buy out the defined benefit scheme of Liberty International and fully insure the scheme’s liabilities. Liberty International is one of the U.K.’s largest listed real estate companies and is a FTSE 100 company.
Pension Corp. said for the year to December 31, its new pension insurance business brought in £3.3bn in assets under management, largely from a 500 million pound deal in December with Cadbury, and about 45,000 pension fund members insured.
To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742