Whitbread - Significant contribution to pension fund

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Slaughter and May is advising Whitbread PLC, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, on the use by Whitbread of a number of its hotels and restaurants to enable a contribution of over £100 million to the company's pension fund.

On 20 May 2010 Whitbread announced that it had formed a partnership with the pension scheme trustee backed by a stake in the company's hotel and restaurant portfolio. Whitbread will continue to control the properties while the partnership provides income to the pension scheme.

Slaughter and May has advised a number of clients in recent months on similar pension funding arrangements, including Marks and Spencer, John Lewis and ITV. 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.

Martin Hattrell (partner), Robert Hollas (associate); Real Estate: Jane Edwarde (partner), Simon Folley (associate), Tom Foley (associate); Tax: Graham Airs (partner), Abigail McGregor (associate), Holly Jones (associate); Pensions and Employment: Eddie Codrington (partner), Edward Smith (associate); Financing: Matthew Tobin (partner), Laurie Keel (associate); Financial Regulation: Ruth Fox (partner), Benjamin Hammond (associate)