Rothesay secures £1.4bn buy-in for Rexam Pension Plan
Pardon the Interruption
This article is just an example of the content available to mallowstreet members.
On average over 150 pieces of new content are published from across the industry per month on mallowstreet. Members get access to the latest developments, industry views and a range of in-depth research.
All the content on mallowstreet is accredited for CPD by the PMI and is available to trustees for free.
Rothesay has completed a £1.4bn full scheme buy-in with the Rexam Pension Plan, securing the benefits for more than 14,000 members – 9,790 pensioners and dependants as well as 4,330 deferred members.
The scheme is sponsored by Ball Corporation, which supplies sustainable aluminium packaging solutions for beverage, personal care and household products.
The buy-in is a single premium insurance policy covering residual risks. Having agreed to structure the insurance premium as a specified pool of assets owned by the scheme, the economics of the transaction were fixed in August 2023.
The deal was one of the 12 completed by Rothesay in 2023, resulting in total new business premiums for the year of £12.7bn.
Cleo Taylor Smith, from the business development team at Rothesay, said last year was one of the firm’s busiest ever, with £12.7bn marking the second largest volume of annual new business, adding: “2024 is looking equally, if not more, exciting with a currently unprecedented pipeline.”
Chris Martin, executive chair at Independent Governance Group and chair of trustees, said: “This is a significant milestone in our derisking journey, and we are delighted to have been able to achieve this outcome for members by working in collaboration with Rothesay.”
The lead broker on the transaction was Aon. WTW provided actuarial advice and project management to the trustee. LCP acted as the plan’s investment advisers. Rothesay and the scheme received legal advice from Eversheds Sutherland and Sackers, respectively, while A&O provided the company with legal advice.
John Baines, partner in the risk settlement group at Aon, said: “For such a complicated scheme, we adapted the broking process to develop creative solutions, allowing the trustee and company to meet all of their objectives. As the market continues to get busier, increasingly thorough preparation and setting out requirements which are carefully tailored to schemes’ objectives will be the blueprint for achieving the best outcomes for members.”
This week, consulting firm WTW predicted there could be £80bn in bulk annuities and longevity swaps this year, citing further pension funding improvements last year as the driver of continued market activity.
