Smiths Group sells GBP 250m worth of pensions assets

Engineering firm Smiths Group is to sell part of its TI Group pension scheme worth £250m.

The assets will be transferred to Legal & General, which will make regular annuity payments to the scheme.

Smiths purchased the manufacturing company, TI Group, in 2000. The annuity purchase is an investment by the TI Group pensions scheme involving approximately 20% of its assets.

The trustee was advised in the purchase by Aon Consulting, Mayer Brown International and Mercer.

Simon Gadd, managing director of Legal & General's annuities business, said: "We are seeing a significant increase in the number of trustee bodies considering options to reduce the risks involved in running their pension schemes."