Sanofi scheme seals £1.4bn buy-in to cover all members
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The Sanofi Pension Scheme has completed a £1.4bn buy-in, covering 4,900 pensioners and 5,600 deferred members. This second buy-in means all of the scheme’s members are now covered by an insurance policy.
The trustees selected Legal & General for the deal, which also undertook a £760m partial buy-in of the scheme in 2021. As part of the 2021 buy-in, an umbrella agreement was put in place. The latest deal means all of the scheme’s members are now covered by buy-ins with L&G.
The scheme’s sponsoring employer is Aventis Pharma, which belongs to French pharma giant Sanofi Group. The risk settlement adviser to the trustee was Aon, while CMS gave legal advice. L&G received legal advice from Slaughter and May.
Trustee secretary Hannah Absolom said: “The trustee selected Legal & General following a rigorous selection process and it has been a tremendous effort by all parties, with special thanks to Aon for leading the process, and to the CMS, XPS and Aptia teams in supporting the trustee through the transaction.”
Mike Edwards, a partner at Aon, said the transaction required a high degree of insurer flexibility and innovation, adding: “In an increasingly busy market for large pension schemes looking to derisk via insurance, this transaction highlights that the best value can be achieved by schemes with well defined requirements and a collaborative stakeholder group.”
L&G said it concluded £8.4bn of bulk annuity transactions in the UK last year. In the second half of 2024, it completed four pension risk transfers worth over £1bn, including this latest one.
Andrew Kail, chief executive, institutional retirement at the insurer said: “This latest transaction is another example of how our synergistic model, across our asset management and institutional retirement divisions, is supporting pension schemes at every stage of their lifecycle.”
The scheme had been using L&G’s asset management division since 1999.
The trustees selected Legal & General for the deal, which also undertook a £760m partial buy-in of the scheme in 2021. As part of the 2021 buy-in, an umbrella agreement was put in place. The latest deal means all of the scheme’s members are now covered by buy-ins with L&G.
The scheme’s sponsoring employer is Aventis Pharma, which belongs to French pharma giant Sanofi Group. The risk settlement adviser to the trustee was Aon, while CMS gave legal advice. L&G received legal advice from Slaughter and May.
Trustee secretary Hannah Absolom said: “The trustee selected Legal & General following a rigorous selection process and it has been a tremendous effort by all parties, with special thanks to Aon for leading the process, and to the CMS, XPS and Aptia teams in supporting the trustee through the transaction.”
Mike Edwards, a partner at Aon, said the transaction required a high degree of insurer flexibility and innovation, adding: “In an increasingly busy market for large pension schemes looking to derisk via insurance, this transaction highlights that the best value can be achieved by schemes with well defined requirements and a collaborative stakeholder group.”
L&G said it concluded £8.4bn of bulk annuity transactions in the UK last year. In the second half of 2024, it completed four pension risk transfers worth over £1bn, including this latest one.
Andrew Kail, chief executive, institutional retirement at the insurer said: “This latest transaction is another example of how our synergistic model, across our asset management and institutional retirement divisions, is supporting pension schemes at every stage of their lifecycle.”
The scheme had been using L&G’s asset management division since 1999.
