Alcatel-Lucent agrees £300 million pension buy-in

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Global telecommunications equipment organisation Alcatel-Lucent has agreed a £300 million pensioner liabilities buy-in with Aviva for its UK defined benefit (DB) pension scheme.

The transaction is part of the organisation’s long-term de-risking objective. Alcatel-Lucent’s pension scheme has liabilities of around £1 billion.

The organisation’s pension trustees were advised by Aon Hewitt, which acted as actuary, investment adviser and consultant to the scheme.

Martin Couzens, chairman of Alcatel-Lucent Pension Trustees Limited, said: “We were very satisfied with this increase in security for our scheme and its members. We have obtained full insurance backing for most of our pensioners and even made a saving against our funding reserve.

“Overall this takes us substantially closer towards our goal of full buy-out.”