Pensions

Our key experience includes advising:

Uniq on the innovative "deficit for equity" swap developed to address the legacy funding shortfall of £436 million in the £1 billion Uniq plc Pension Scheme.

RSA Insurance on the insurance of pension liabilities totalling £1.9 billion by entering into fully collateralised asset swap and longevity insurance contracts with Goldman Sachs and its subsidiary Rothesay Life.

GSK on the £0.9 billion bulk annuity buy-in agreement entered into by two of GSK’s pension schemes with Prudential.

HM Treasury on pension issues in connection with the taking into temporary public ownership of Northern Rock and parts of Bradford & Bingley and the recapitalisation of the banking industry.

Royal Mail in relation to strategic pension matters such as HM Government's proposal to sectionalise the Royal Mail Pension Plan and transfer approximately £30 billion of its liabilities to a new public sector unfunded pension scheme, and before that on its closure of the Plan to new joiners and negotiations with its trustees over the Government’s investment in the Royal Mail and the Post Office (under which £1 billion was placed in escrow as security for the Company's pension obligations).

INEOS in relation to the dispute at Grangemouth oil refinery which centred on proposed changes to the pension scheme.

Cadbury on changes to its £1.6 billion defined benefit pension scheme to move to career average pension benefits.

Clients, including Marks and Spencer, Whitbread, John Lewis and Diageo on funding their pension schemes by investments in asset backed partnerships.

Trustee of the Unilever UK Pension Fund in establishing the first Luxembourg based cross-border pension fund investment pooling vehicle and a further Luxembourg based investment vehicle investing in hedge funds.

Gatwick Airport on the establishment of a new defined benefit registered pension scheme for 2,000 active members.

Listed and private company clients and trustee clients on scheme change exercises in relation to some of the UK’s largest pension schemes, including changes from defined benefit to defined contribution and modification of defined benefit.