Rothesay secures £1.4bn buy-in with Safeway Pension Scheme
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Specialist pensions insurer Rothesay has completed a £1.4bn buy-in with the Safeway Pension Scheme, securing the benefits of more than 22,500 members – over 7,200 pensioners and dependants as well as around 15,300 deferred members.
The sponsor is Morrisons, one of UK’s largest grocery retailers, whose 1967 Section of the Morrisons Retirement Saver Plan also completed a £762m buy-in with the same insurer in February this year.
Rothesay said working together for the second time in a short timeframe meant “all parties involved were able to utilise the working relationship they had built up to deliver a seamless execution”. Rothesay has now insured over £2.1bn of the company’s pension liabilities.
Róisín O’Shea, part of Rothesay’s business development team, said the demand to derisk “has never been as high as we’re currently seeing in the market”.
The lead broker on the transaction was Aon, acting on behalf of both the trustee and Morrisons. Legal advice to the trustee was provided by Clifford Chance and to Rothesay by DLA Piper.
John Baines, partner at Aon, said: “Most of the recent commentary on the bulk annuity markets has focused on how busy 2023 is likely to be. This transaction demonstrates that value is still available for well prepared schemes.”
Bradford-based Morrisons acquired Safeway in a £3bn deal in 2004.
In summer 2020, the Court of Appeal sided with the Safeway scheme in a case about retrospective equalisation of guaranteed minimum pensions.
Are more supermarkets expected to de-risk this year?
