Tthe National Grid UK Pension Scheme has completed a £900m (€1bn) buy-in with Rothesay, a UK pensions insurance specialist.

The transaction, which completed in July, takes the total value of the pension fund’s de-risked liabilities with Rothesay to £4.5bn following a previous £800m buy-in in 2020 and a £2.8bn buy-in deal in 2019.

This third transaction covers 7,130 uninsured pensioners of the scheme, made up of both recent retirees and pensioners who have been in payment for several years.

Rothesay’s in-house asset management team, therefore, sourced both longer and shorter dated assets to support the nature of the fund’s pension liabilities now secured, ensuring competitive pricing in a buoyant market, it was disclosed.

Aon acted as the lead risk transfer adviser on the deal, while Rothesay received legal advice from CMS, and Sackers provided legal advice to the fund’s trustees. LCP provided actuarial and investment advice as well as executive and governance support to the trustees.

Chris Martin, professional trustee at IGG and chair of trustees at the fund, said: “Having taken on the position of chair of the scheme after the first two buy-ins, the board and National Grid completed a review of our shared strategic direction and concluded that it was appropriate to continue to de-risk the scheme and further enhance the security of our members.”

He added that the pension fund’s longstanding relationship with Rothesay supported the “smooth and efficient execution of this latest transaction”.

Roisin O’Shea, business development at Rothesay, said the firm worked with the scheme’s trustees to create a bespoke solution that met their objectives.

Mike Edwards, partner at Aon, added: “[…] Rothesay provided the level of flexibility needed to meet the scheme’s requirements. It is a competitive de-risking market for both schemes and insurers right now, and to achieve such a positive outcome via an innovative transaction required a high degree of collaboration between all parties – Rothesay, the scheme and advisers.”

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Venilia is editor of IPE.com. She joined the IPE editorial team in November 2019 after freelancing for FT Adviser and LAPF Investments, while also being a publisher for market intelligence company Clear Path Analysis. She started her career at Euromoney Institutional Investor where for 16 years was reporter and editor covering the asset management industry globally.View full Profile

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