Wyeth Group Pension and Life Assurance Scheme, Sheffield, England, insured £158 million ($205 million) in liabilities through a buy-in with Just Group, said Martyn Phillips, partner at Mercer, adviser on the deal.
The transaction covers 1,200 inactive participants and was the £350 million pension fund's first risk transfer.
Mr. Phillips, who works within U.K. bulk pensions insurance advisory group at Mercer, said the pension fund, which is sponsored by Pfizer, has a strategy in place to derisk over time "(and if) there is an opportunity in the future to do further deals."
Debbie Berney, trustee of the Wyeth Group Pension and Life Assurance Scheme, said in a news release: "We welcome this transaction as a big step forward in ensuring the scheme is able to meet the full costs of its future pension payments to all members and look forward to examining other derisking opportunities in the future."
Rob Mechem, head of defined benefit business development at Just Group, said in the release: "This is a well-funded scheme with a trustee board that was fully engaged in the details of every aspect of the process and was very well-prepared in terms of data cleansing and benefit specification."