Legal & General agrees full buy-in of Boots Pension Scheme for £4.8bn

(Sharecast News) - Insurer and asset manager Legal & General said on Friday that it has agreed to a full buy-in of the Boots Pension Scheme for £4.8bn. The buy-in secures the benefits of all 53,000 retirees and deferred members of the scheme, making it the UK's largest single transaction of its kind by premium size and, for L&G, the largest single transaction by number of members.

L&G noted that it has a long-standing relationship with Boots, having provided investment management services to the scheme for more than 20 years. This buy-in begins the conclusion of a de-risking process that the scheme first embarked on in 2001, it said.

Chief executive Andrew Kail said: "This is testament to our long-standing relationship with the client, and I am proud that we have been able to work seamlessly across our insurance, reinsurance and investment management capabilities to deliver an excellent outcome.

"We are continuing to see an unprecedented acceleration in demand in this sector, driven by more pension schemes being closer to buyout than ever before. Against this backdrop, we have posted a record year with £13.4bn of global PRT written to date."