Dairy co-operative First Milk has completed a £42 million full-scheme pension buy-in for its Scottish Milk Retirement Benefits Plan.
The transaction, which was carried out with financial services Just Group, secures the benefits of 452 scheme members, of which 292 are pensioners and 160 deferred members. The buy-in included a deferred premium element, which enabled the transaction to take place.
Professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) was the lead pension risk transfer adviser, providing support and advice to the trustee and sponsor representatives. The trustees received actuarial and investment advice from Mercer, covenant advice from EY, and legal advice from Burness Paull. First Milk, which sponsors the scheme, was advised by Brodies and Just Group by Pinsent Masons.
Zahir Fazal of BESTrustees, and chair of the trustees of the scheme, said: “The transaction marks a key step in the trustees’ journey to enhance the security of member benefits, and the trustees are extremely grateful for the ongoing engagement and support from the sponsor to enable this positive transaction to be executed. Collaboration was the key to success and the PWC team worked collaboratively with the other advisers and with Just to ensure the scheme was well prepared and the transaction structure suited all parties.”
Martin Parker, senior business development manager at Just Group, added: “Collaboration was key on this transaction and we worked closely with the scheme’s advisers and legal teams to structure a deferred premium element that enabled the deal to progress. This transaction is evidence of a vibrant bulk annuity market that’s working for schemes of all sizes.”
Dweenisha Caleechurn, head of bulk annuities at PWC, said: “We are proud to have advised the trustee and sponsor on this bespoke deferred premium transaction, resulting in such a positive outcome for all parties. The extensive preparatory work allowed the scheme to be nimble and execute a transaction ahead of planned timescales.”
