Imperial Tobacco Pension Fund lights up $2.4 billion buy-in

Imperial Tobacco Pension Fund, Bristol, England, completed a £1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) buy-in with an annuity purchase from Standard Life, the insurer's parent company Phoenix Group said in a news release Thursday.

It is the £4.4 billion pension fund's first such transaction and covers 6,600 participants. The pension fund is sponsored by Imperial Brands PLC.

Pension fund trustee Chairwoman Helen Clatworthy in a statement called the bulk annuity transaction "a major step in the fund's derisking strategy (that) significantly improves the security of members' benefits."

Calls to Imperial Brands and the pension office for further details were not immediately returned.

Lead advisers for the trustee were Hymans Robertson, with funding advice from Willis Towers Watson, investment advice from Isio and legal advice from Osborne Clarke and CMS.

Standard Life said in the news release that it is growing its bulk purchase annuity business. The Phoenix Bulk Purchase Annuity business was aligned under the Standard Life brand in October 2021.

A 2021 analysis of derisking trends by consultant Lane Clark & Peacock predicted rising demand and up to £650 billion in full and partial buyouts over the next decade, including £30 billion to £50 billion by 2025.

Justin Grainger, Standard Life's managing director of defined benefit solutions, said in the release that growing the derisking business will also fuel investment into U.K. infrastructure and socially responsible projects "that provide good returns as well as delivering for the communities that we serve."

Standard Life said in a separate news release Thursday that it will be changing its largest default options for defined contribution plans throughout 2022 to be more sustainable. The new sustainable multiasset strategies will provide increased exposure to equities targeting good customer outcomes and will be underpinned by ESG components of up to 80% within the asset class, depending on the strategy applied, Standard Life said in the news release. That change will make it the default option for 9,000 workplace plans.