Cookson Group Pension Plan has signed a second bulk annuity policy worth £30m with Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), following the £320m buy-in in July 2012. The trustees were advised by Aon Hewitt.
Under the new deal, now sponsored by Vesuvius following the recent de-merger of Cookson Group, members who retire in the next three years will have their pensions insured on agreed terms. The first tranche of members will cover retirees between July 2012 and December 2013. They will be insured in 2014 based on December 2012 market rates, removing price uncertainty from the trustee’s de-risking plans.
The buy-in policy is similar to the one agreed with the London Stock Exchange pension scheme in 2011, under which future retirees will be insured automatically over the following five years.
Chairman of the trustees Allan Course said: “We continue to work closely with Vesuvius to manage a gradual de-risking of the plan and the approach we developed with PIC and our advisors at Aon Hewitt enables us to achieve this. We are delighted to have locked in pricing for the first tranche of retirees. This removes volatility from the plan and allows us to develop our future strategy with confidence.”