Scottish Widows enters buy-in market with £400m deal

Wiggins Teape pension scheme has competed a £400m (€565m) buy-in, the first transaction completed by new market entrant Scottish Widows.

Jeff Sayers, director of bulk annuities and investment strategy, said he was delighted to be entering the market, adding that the £400m deal showed the “strength” of the company’s de-risking offering.

Keith Taylor, head of pensions at the scheme, praised the work of KPMG, with the company acting as adviser to the Wiggins Teape Pension Scheme.

“The buy-in of the pensioner liabilities is a key de-risking step for the scheme, with a large proportion of the [its] liabilities now insured,” Taylor added.

Emma Watkins, who joined SWIP earlier this year as director of bulk annuities to launch the business, said the deal marked a “significant milestone” for the company.

“Through the provision of an innovative mechanism, we have been able to ensure premium certainty for the scheme over an extended execution period,” Watkins said.

“Furthermore, our pricing approach and use of up-to-date scheme member information in the run-up to the transaction date extends pricing certainty post-transaction and ensures efficient implementation of the policy.”

The UK’s Philips Pension Fund recently announced a full buyout, transferring £2.4bn worth of risk to the Pensions Insurance Corporation.

The Wiggings Teape and Philips deal significantly boosts the volume of bulk annuity transactions for 2015, which, according to Aon Hewitt, stood at £4.4bn as of the end of June.

However, the current volume of deals remains short of 2014’s £12bn in transactions.