PIC completes £4.3B Rolls-Royce pension buyout in nine months

What's the deal? Pension Insurance CorporationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (PIC), a specialist insurer of defined benefit pension schemes, has completed the buyout of all 36,000 members of the Rolls-RoyceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → UK Pension Fund. The move follows a £4.3 billion full buy-in signed with the Trustee just nine months earlier.

Why now? PIC said the speed reflected close collaboration with the Fund's Trustee. "Our strong working relationship allowed us to complete the process within just nine months," said Pete Rennalls, head of new business delivery at PIC.

What's the endgame? The buyout transfers responsibility for members' pensions to PIC as policyholders. To maintain continuity, PIC appointed BrightwellDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → as its administration partner, retaining the existing Rolls-Royce administration team.

The expansion angle: Brightwell has opened a new, dedicated office in Derby, where the Rolls-Royce administration team was already based. The team has transferred to Brightwell to keep local expertise, combining that experience with Brightwell's technology platform.

The Derby office was officially opened by Baggy Shanker, Labour and Co-operative MP for Derby South and a former Rolls-Royce employee. "I was pleased to visit Brightwell's new Derby office, meet the team based here, and welcome skilled work being retained locally," he said.

The signal: Large corporate pension schemes continue to offload their defined benefit liabilities to specialist insurers, and completing a deal of this scale within nine months signals how quickly these transfers can now move when sponsors and administrators align.

Read more: Actuarial Post

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