LCP advise on £110m buy-in between Just and the Ockham Pension Scheme

The Trustee of the Ockham Pension Scheme, working closely with its corporate sponsor, Liverpool Victoria Financial Services Ltd, (‘LV=’), has announced that it has completed a £110m buy-in of the Scheme’s liabilities with Just Group plc (Just).

This is the third buy-in completed by a pension scheme sponsored within LV=, following the £40m full buy-in with Rothesay of the Teachers Assurance Group Pension Scheme in 2019 (which won InsuranceERM’s award for Longevity risk transfer deal of the Year), and the conversion of the LV= Employee Pension Scheme’s longevity swap into a £800m buy-in with Standard Life in 2020.

LCP was appointed as specialist de-risking adviser to the Trustee and LV=, with A&O providing transaction legal advice (alongside Eversheds who provided further advice to LV=) and Redington providing investment advice on the asset transfer. Just was advised by Pinsent Masons.

Huw Evans, Chair of the Ockham Pension Scheme and a Director of BESTrustees Limited, commented: “This is an excellent achievement for the Scheme. Securing member benefits under the buy-in insurance policy, regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), gives additional layers of protection to members and effectively removes investment and other demographic risks from the Scheme. Our advisers, LCP, A&O, Hymans and Redington worked collaboratively to run an efficient process and drive the project to a successful conclusion.”

Stephen Percival, Chief Financial Officer at LV= commented: “This transaction is another important step in reducing our DB pension scheme funding risks, which further enhances the stability and quality of LV’s capital surplus. The transaction both secures the benefits for the Ockham pension scheme members and is also in the best interests of LV’s 1 million+ members”.

Gareth Davies, Partner at LCP, commented: “It has been my pleasure to have helped LV= and their respective trustee boards to implement buy-in transactions across each of LV= group’s three DB pension schemes. The scheme prepared well and carefully considered and tailored their market-approach which was rewarded with strong insurer engagement and attractive proposals from multiple insurers. It highlights that even in the current busy market good preparation and the right strategy pays off and leads to a good result for a scheme and its members.”

Kishan Radia, DB Business Development Manager at Just Group added: “This was a great team effort with high levels of collaboration to deliver the transaction successfully in a vibrant, busy market, that’s working for schemes of all sizes. Working closely with the Trustees’ advisers we tailored our proposition to meet the needs of the Scheme, who locked into an agreed portfolio of assets and transferred those assets to Just. We are very proud to have completed this transaction, securing the benefits of c700 members of the Ockham Pension Scheme.”