The transaction, the largest so far by Canada Life, is the first in a framework of buy-in transactions for the scheme and covers the majority of pensioner liabilities in the £2.2 billion fund.
Aon advised the scheme throughout the transaction which was completed by Aon’s market-leading Compass platform. This enabled the scheme to move quickly at a time when pricing was attractive and, given the significant economic benefit, allowed it to complete a larger transaction than originally envisaged. Sackers provided legal advice throughout the process, while Redington advised on the investment implications.
Greg Meekings, chair of trustees for the Reuters Pension Fund, said: “This transaction has led to a major improvement to the security of our members' pensions by taking a significant amount of risk out of the scheme. We are grateful for the excellent advisory support provided by Aon, Sackers and Redington to work collaboratively and complete this transaction in such a short timescale. I would also like to acknowledge the positive sponsor support from Blackstone and Thomson Reuters."
John Baines, head of Bulk Annuities at Aon, said: “A decisive factor of this deal was the ability of the Trustee to manage a large buy-in alongside a major corporate transaction. In a very busy market, a key element of this was our use of Aon’s Compass platform which enabled us to capture attractive pricing in the market quickly and efficiently. We are also pleased to see Canada Life showing commitment to larger bulk annuity transactions - further increasing competition in the market."
Richard Priestley, Executive Director at Canada Life, said: "This is Canada Life’s largest Bulk Buy-In transaction to date and follows a pleasing run of transactions over recent weeks. We worked closely with the team at Aon to effectively deliver a transaction with attractive pricing during our busiest period of the year. The magnitude of this deal reflects our strategy to specifically target transactions that meet our appetite for longevity risk.”
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