Wednesbury Pension Scheme secures £43m buy-in

Atkin Pensions are pleased to announce that the Wednesbury Pension Scheme (“the Scheme”) has secured a £43 million full scheme buy-in with Just Group.

The Scheme is sponsored by Mueller Europe Ltd (“the Employer”), a UK-based manufacturer and distributer of copper tube for plumbing, heating and industrial applications under the Wednesbury and Yorkshire brands.

Atkin Pensions has provided administration and consultancy services to the Scheme for a number of years.

The Scheme is contracted out and, therefore, the Trustees needed to consider GMP equalisation and rectification which they decided to complete before moving to the buy-in stage.  Working closely with the Company and their advisors, XPS, the Scheme was able to make adjustments to the member benefits on the basis of GMP conversion, including appropriate adjustments for closed members.  Despite the complexity of the work involved, the adjustment were made within the budgets and timescales agreed.

As a first step to considering buying in the benefits, the Scheme signed up to Just’s bulk quotation and price monitoring service, Beacon, which provides monthly indicative pricing helped the Trustees (and Company) to assess what a buy-in might cost and how the price fluctuates.  This meant that the Scheme was able to enter into buy-in negotiations with a good understanding of what the ultimate price might be. 

The Scheme had sufficient funds available to secure the buy-in without additional contributions from the Employer. The transaction secures the benefits of all 384 Scheme members comprising 63 deferred and 321 pensioner members and completes the buy-in of all Scheme liabilities.

The Scheme had been in a buy-out surplus for some time and its investments were fully derisked and liquid. However, the Trustees and Employer were keen to ensure best value for their insurance transaction and with the assistance of Atkin Pensions and other advisers, spent time preparing the Scheme to maximise engagement of insurers.

Richard Bryant, for Atkin Pensions said: “We are  pleased to have facilitated a successful buy-in of scheme benefits with Just Retirement. This outcome secures a strong future for members and the sponsoring employer, proving that smaller schemes can achieve outstanding results. It’s great that the preparatory work has resulted in an attractive deal for all stakeholders.”

Mark Millerchip, Mueller Europe Ltd added: Like many scheme sponsors , passing our scheme to pension professionals to give greater security to scheme members has been our long term aim. Mueller Europe would like to thank all parties that helped make the buyout happen.

Broadstone provided annuity broking service adding to their long-standing appointment as Scheme Actuary and investment consultant.  Legal advice to the Trustee was provided by Neon Legal