* Insures 3.8 bln stg in pension liabilities
* 'Buy-in' covers largest-ever number of workers
* Rothesay raises 200 mln stg to fund new deals
By Simon Jessop
LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - British-based Rothesay Life
broke new ground for the burgeoning pension risk transfer
industry on Friday, striking an insurance deal that protects the
retirement savings of the largest-ever number of yet-to-retire
members.
The 3.8 billion pounds ($4.68 billion) 'buy-in' deal sees
Rothesay guarantee the benefits for 17,000 pensioners and around
10,000 workers in the Allied Domecq Pension Fund, taking
Rothesay's total assets past 50 billion pounds.
The deal will see Rothesay assume the risk that investment
returns falter or that members live longer than expected,
so-called longevity risk, which companies are keen to transfer
to insurers and off their balance sheet.
Established in 2007 and backed by private-equity giant
Blackstone and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, Rothesay
currently insures the pensions of more than 800,000 people.
Others active in the sector include Legal & General and
Pension Insurance Corporation.
The Allied Domecq deal comes just a day after Rothesay
agreed Britain's biggest-ever pension transfer deal with
telecoms firm Telent over its defined benefit, or final salary,
scheme.
As well as initially insuring Telent's scheme, as with
Allied Domecq, the Telent deal will eventually see Rothesay take
on full responsbility for the scheme members, known as a
'buy-out'.
The successful completion of two large deals comes as
Rothesay mulls an appeal against a court ruling stopping the
transfer of 12 billion pounds in annuities from Prudential
, with a decision expected imminently.
"This transaction is further evidence that large maturing
pension schemes are increasingly looking to secure de-risking
opportunities," said Sammy Cooper-Smith, who works on business
development at Rothesay.
"Rothesay Life's balance sheet strength, expertise and
considerable ongoing shareholder support means that we are a
very good insurance partner to the largest pension schemes in
the UK."
Given a healthy pipeline of potential new business, Rothesay
Life's shareholders have contributed a further 200 million
pounds of new equity into the company, Rothesay said, taking
total new equity raised in 2019 to 700 million pounds.
($1 = 0.8112 pounds)
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)