Lovells

Lovells has advised the trustee of Cable and Wireless pension scheme on its landmark £1bn bulk annuity deal with Prudential.  

Cable and Wireless announced on 3 September 2008 that the Trustee of the fund has agreed a ‘buy-in’ of the pensioner element of the Fund with Prudential UK, (”Prudential”). The deal is believed to be the biggest of its kind in the UK to date and involves the purchase of a bulk annuity policy by the Fund under which Prudential will assume responsibility for the benefits payable to the scheme’s c.5,000 pensioners with effect from 1 August 2008.  

The deal is Lovells' second high profile mandate in relation to pensions buy-ins this year. In May the firm advised the Trustees of the Lonmin Superannuation Scheme on the transfer of defined benefit pension liabilities to Paternoster. Lovells is currently advising on a number of other potential similar transactions.  

Stephen Ito (Partner) and Claire Southern (Senior Associate) led the Lovells Pensions team on the Cable & Wireless matter, with support from Dominic Hill (Partner), Joe Bannister (Partner), Angela Greenough (Associate) and Caroline Rasaiah (Associate).  

Commenting on the transaction, Stephen Ito said:

"It has been a pleasure to work with Cable & Wireless trustee on a deal of such size and complexity. Taken in addition to our work with Lonmin and a number of earlier transactions, our pensions practice has established itself at the cutting edge of pensions buy-ins and I suspect this will not be the last deal of this type we see in 2008."