Cobham Pension Plan, Bournemouth, England, completed a £530 million ($593 million) bulk purchase annuity transaction with Standard Life, the organizations said in a joint news release. All plan participants are now covered by annuities, following the deal plus a similar transaction in 2013, the release said.
Standard Life has completed £3.2 billion of bulk annuity volumes to date. Rhian Littlewood, senior business development manager at Standard Life, said in the release that the transaction shows the importance of trustees being agile to take advantage of favorable market opportunities. Cobham Pension Plan trustees initially approached the market looking to secure a pensioner-only transaction, but found they were able to secure their liabilities in full, he said.
Sven Lewis, chief financial officer of sponsor Cobham Ltd., said in the release that since the tech company was acquired by Advent three years ago, "we have had a clear plan to de-risk our pension scheme," including more than £150 million of increased cash investment from Advent into the pension plan.
The latest transaction was completed in August, with Lane Clark & Peacock serving as lead advisers to the trustees for this transaction, with additional support from AR Pensions and Wellbeing Consulting. Legal advice was provided by Squire Patton Boggs and Sacker & Partners, and CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang for Standard Life, the release said.
