Rothesay Life completes 500 million pound buy-out of pension scheme
LONDON (Reuters) - Insurer Rothesay Life said on Thursday it has completed a 500 million pound buy-out of the Vestey Group's Western United group pension scheme.
In 'buy-out' deals, all liability for running a scheme is transferred to an insurance company.
The buy-out was concluded with a 280 million pound bulk annuity, the insurer said in a statement, its third bulk annuity deal with the scheme.
The insurer earlier had secured over 220 million pounds of the scheme’s liabilities.
It is a defined benefit pension scheme for around 14,000 current and former employees and employers of the Vestey Group, a food and farming business.
A shake-up of pension rules by the British government this year has led to insurers ramping up the number of retirement deals they sell to companies rather than to individuals.
Britain told retirees with pensions reliant on financial market returns, so-called defined contribution schemes, earlier this year that from April 2015 they would no longer have to buy an annuity, or income for life, at retirement.
(Reporting by Nishant Kumar; editing by Jason Neely)
