A group of unnamed pension schemes in the travel catering industry have completed a £100m buy-in with Standard Life, securing the benefits of the around 2,100 members across the schemes.

WTW acted as lead adviser to the trustee on the full scheme buy-in, which completed in April, and involved combining three separate pension scheme sections into one transaction.

Legal advice was provided to the schemes by Baker McKenzie, and scheme actuary advice and administration support was provided by Gallagher.

Commenting on the deal, chair of the trustee, Mark Johnston, said: “Following our appointment in August 2023 and then working with the trustee board, we recognised that a buy-in would allow us to reduce the risks involved in running the schemes and ensure long-term security for all members of the schemes.

“The collaborative work between the trustees advisers and sponsoring company paid off with a clear request to insurers, resulting in a highly competitive quotation process with five insurers, allowing the trustees to select Standard Life to continue this collaborative theme and who will provide an excellent experience for our members.”

This was echoed by Standard Life bulk purchase annuity (BPA) transaction manager, Emma Haylock, who also stressed the importance of collaboration, explaining that this ensured a “smooth and efficient” de-risking process, with all parties completing significant preparation work such that once the schemes’ assets were transaction-ready, the trustees were able to move quickly.

“This allowed us to complete the transaction swiftly and within a relatively short timeframe, securing the liabilities for all members,” she added.

In addition to collaboration, WTW director, Jenny Neale, said that aligning the three pension sections into one package ensured they were more attractive to insurers than each would have been individually.

“The highly competitive process allowed the trustee and company to test the different aspects of the insurers’ propositions and produced a great result for the schemes and their members,” Neale explained.

“Pricing in the BPA market has remained attractive over recent months, despite record volumes of transactions in 2023. We are expecting levels of activity to increase over the remainder of 2024 as we support more schemes to transact.”

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