IMI 2014 Deferred Fund, Birmingham, completed a £250 million ($340 million) partial buy-in with Pension Insurance Corp., the insurer said in a release Thursday.
It is the fifth partial buy-in between PIC and the defined benefit plan sponsored by engineering firm IMI plc. With the latest transaction, completed in December, the buy-ins that started in 2016 now cover 80% of plan liabilities and add up to £800 million.
Duncan Brown, IMI group pensions manager and secretary to the fund trustee, called the transaction a "huge step in the direction of our long-term derisking objective of fully insuring our pension obligations."
PwC served IMI and the pension fund as lead transaction advisers. Willis Towers Watson was the fund's actuarial adviser, Aon was investment adviser and SPB was legal adviser.
The most recent buy-in covered a high proportion of IMI participants not yet receiving pension benefits, which are "typically more challenging to insure," and long-dated corporate credit spreads at historically low levels presented another challenge, Swapnil Katkar, pension solutions adviser at PwC UK, said in the release.
