Diageo - Pension funding plan

List of all recent work 

Slaughter and May is advising Diageo plc on a contribution of £367 million to its defined benefit pension scheme and a subsequent investment of £367 million by the pension scheme in a partnership structure backed by maturing whisky assets of the Diageo group.

The partnership is structured to deliver to the pension scheme over a 15 year period an annual return on its investment expected to be £25 million and a final payment of up to £430 million.

Slaughter and May has advised a number of clients in recent months on similar pension funding arrangements, including Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, ITV and Whitbread. These structures are refinements of the highly innovative pension funding structure originally implemented by Marks and Spencer in 2007, which Slaughter and May were instrumental in developing.

Stephen Powell (partner), Elham Saudi (associate), Oliver Storey (associate); Pensions: Charles Cameron (partner), David Wilks (associate); Tax: Steve Edge (partner), Richard Jeens (associate); Financial Regulation: Jan Putnis (partner)