Legal & General Group Plc (LON:LGEN) today announced that it has completed a £4.4 billion buy-in for British Airways PLC’s pension scheme, Airways Pension Scheme, covering nearly 22,000 pensioners. This is the largest ever bulk annuity policy arranged with a UK pension scheme and also included the conversion of existing longevity insurance into a bulk annuity.
As announced at the half year results, the UK pension risk transfer market continues to demonstrate a high level of activity with Legal & General actively quoting on more than £20 billion, of which more than £7 billion were in exclusive negotiations at the time. Since then, Legal & General has completed £4.8 billion of UK PRT transactions, including the APS buy-in, and is now actively quoting on £27 billion of UK PRT deals. Additionally Legal & General has continued to show strong momentum in International PRT, completing £191 million of transactions since the end of June.
In aggregate, Legal & General has completed £6.0 billion of global pension de-risking transactions year to date (UK PRT: £5.3 billion, International PRT: £0.4 billion, Longevity Insurance: £0.3 billion). The financial metrics and Solvency II capital strain of these transactions are in line with previous levels reported by Legal & General.
Nigel Wilson, Chief Executive, Legal & General Group, said:
“I’m delighted that Legal & General has transacted the largest bulk annuity to date in the UK for British Airways’ pension scheme. As we indicated at the half year results, the second half of 2018 is likely to be a record six months for our PRT business and we expect to announce further transactions in the next few months. We are actively quoting on £27 billion of UK PRT deals demonstrating the strong demand for insurance, supported by increasing affordability, as trustees seek to improve security for members and companies look to remove legacy liabilities. Legal & General’s combination of longevity and investment management expertise uniquely positions us to deliver at scale, providing solutions that benefit schemes and their members.”
Laura Mason, CEO Legal & General Retirement Institutional, said:
“We are proud to have delivered this ground-breaking transaction, the largest bulk annuity transaction completed in the UK market. This is a great example of Legal & General delivering for UK companies and their pension members, enabling pension schemes to provide security to their pensioners in retirement.
This transaction also included the conversion of existing longevity insurance to a bulk annuity, demonstrating Legal & General’s ability to deal with a complex situation and offer innovative solutions drawing on the broad experience and capabilities of the wider Legal & General Group.
The depth and scale of our Retirement business means that we can confidently deliver for APS scheme members, whilst maintaining capacity for further de-risking activity in the near term.”
