In a combined transaction, the mining conglomerate has completed the buy-ins of the Tarmac UK Pension Scheme, the Tarmac ‘B’ Pension Scheme and the Anglo UK Pension Scheme, covering more than 5,100 pensioners and 2,500 deferred members. 

The scheme trustees picked Legal & General, which provided a price lock based on the schemes’ assets through the transaction process.  

“The buy-ins are the culmination of many years of hard work as we implemented a long-term derisking strategy, fully supported by Anglo American,” said Keith Jackson and Tony Davies, who chair the schemes.

They said L&G was selected for a number of qualitative factors, “including its long and successful track record in both the bulk and individual annuity business, financial strength and administration capabilities, with a deep-seated commitment to customer care”.

The trustees were advised by Mercer, Gowling WLG, Aon, Sackers and Capita.

Chief executive institutional retirement at L&G, Andrew Kail, said: “Helping these Schemes achieve their endgame objectives marks a strong start to another busy year in the pension risk transfer market. We are committed to providing a secure home for the insured benefits of the Schemes’ members and we look forward to supporting them in their retirement. The outlook for this year remains exceptionally positive and with a busy market our pipeline remains as strong as ever across all sizes of transactions.”

L&G said it has completed £1.2bn in UK pension risk transfer transactions in 2025 and is actively pricing on £17 billion of new deals. The insurer noted that this is its first publicly announced transaction of 2025. For last year, it reports global pension risk transfer volumes of £10.7bn.

Ben Stone, risk transfer partner at Mercer, said bringing three schemes of this size to the insurance market in a combined approach required significant planning and co-ordination across trustees and advisers.

“We were pleased with the engagement from the wider market in this competitive process, and securing buy-ins for all three schemes is a great outcome for the membership who have benefitted from being part of a combined approach compared to going to market alone,” he added.

The transaction follows a £870m buy-in of the De Beers UK Pension Scheme with Pension Insurance Corporation, announced a year ago. Anglo American is reportedly seeking to either list or sell the diamond company in which it is the main stakeholder, with a smaller part owned by Botswana. Anglo itself became the target of takeover bids from BHP last year but rejected them. The Church of England Pension Board, a shareholder in Anglo, has publicly spoken out against a merger of Anglo.