Athene Holding Ltd., one of Bermuda’s leading retirement services companies, has entered into a pension plan termination transaction with U.S pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Company relating to more than 24,000 active and former employees, retirees and beneficiaries.
The agreement will see Athene’s Iowa-based life subsidiary, Athene Annuity and Life Company (AAIA) provide an annuity contract for all obligations of Bristol-Myer Squibb’s U.S Retirement Income Plan for which participants do not elect to receive a lump sum payment.
The parties expect that AAIA’s annuity contract will cover as much as $3.8 billion of remaining pension liabilities after the transfer is completed in August 2019.
Once the deal is finalised, Athene will assume full financial responsibility for annuity and lump sum payments to all plan participants, including required administration.
“We are pleased to have been selected as a trusted partner by Bristol-Myers Squibb, a global leader in the biopharmaceutical industry, to serve all of their U.S. Plan participants through this innovative transaction,” said Sean Brennan, Senior Vice President and Head of Pension Risk Transfer at Athene.
“This transaction represents the largest full-plan termination to date that includes both retirees and non-retirees, and we believe this approach may provide a blueprint for plan sponsors considering full plan terminations in the future,” he continued.
Bill Wheeler, President of Athene, also commented: “As a leader in pension risk transfers, Athene is able to provide plan sponsors with customized solutions to achieve their desired pension risk and financial objectives while ensuring the financial security of their plan participants.”
“Our differentiated investment, actuarial, risk-management, and operational capabilities, combined with our strong balance sheet, position us well to serve the $3 trillion defined benefit marketplace,” Wheeler added.
Athene currently manages pension payments for more than 80,000 annuitants and has already closed six pension transfer transactions in 2018, totalling more than $1.8 billion.
