Pension Corp., a U.K. pension buyout company, announced an agreement to purchase the £3.1 billion ($6.2 billion) pension fund of telent PLC, Coventry, England, formerly Marconi Corp. PLC, according to Pension Corp. spokeswoman Charlotte Crosswell. Pension Corp. subsidiary Co-Investment No. 5 will acquire telent’s entire business in a cash offer totaling £398 million. The subsidiary already holds 3% of telent stock and has agreed to acquire a 26.4% holding from an unnamed institutional investor, pending regulatory approval.
“If it goes ahead, the telent deal would amount to the biggest transfer of pension liabilities in the U.K. to the secondary pensions buyout market and give Pension Corp. management of pension assets in total in excess of £5 billion,” Andrew Reid, head of corporate consulting at Watson Wyatt, said in a statement about the deal.
Pension Corp. also acquired the £1.2 billion Thorn Pension Fund, West Sussex, England, and the £100 million pension fund of London-based Threshers Group over the summer. Pensions Corp. has since sold 75% of Threshers and one of Thorn’s subsidiaries, Brighthouse, while maintaining ownership of both pension funds, Ms. Crosswell said.
