Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), a specialist re/insurer of defined benefit pension funds, has concluded a buy-in with the Trustees of the Kingfisher Pension Scheme that covers c.£200 million of liabilities.
The Scheme currently insures around £450 million of liabilities, and has approximately £4 billion of liabilities in total.
Kingfisher is an international home improvement company with nearly 1,300 stores in 10 countries across Europe, Russia and Turkey.
Its main retail brands are B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, and Screwfix, and it is a constituent of The Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 Index.
Mitul Magudia, Head of Business Development at PIC, said: “Insuring pension schemes in phases has become the dominant trend within bulk annuities over the past couple of years. With pension schemes moving increasingly into fixed income assets that better match their liabilities, we would expect this trend to continue.
“This is the route that the Kingfisher Trustees have taken and we are very pleased to have been able to help them continue their de-risking programme.”
Clive Gilchrist, Chairman of Trustees, also commented: “This is another important step for the Kingfisher Pension Scheme on its journey towards its target of self-sufficiency.
“The annuity provides a further improvement to the financial security of the Scheme for all members. I would like to thank the PIC team and our advisers for their help in making this a seamless exercise.”
Aon was also involved in the deal, serving the Trustees of the Scheme in an advisory capacity.
John Baines, Partner at Aon, said: “In their second transaction, the Kingfisher Trustees benefited from the robust decision-making framework that was already in place, and the excellent groundwork from their pensions team, to efficiently increase the security of benefits for their members.
“In this case, the Trustees were able to secure a valuable price lock to immunise the Scheme from market movements over a potentially volatile year end period.”
