Standard Life, a FTSE 100 group, has announced a new partnership with a consortium led by CVC, which also includes Goldman Sachs and insurer Prudential. This collaboration aims to accelerate Standard Life's expansion into the pension risk transfer market.
The consortium plans to commit as much as £2bn over the next five years to this initiative. Standard Life's contribution to this sum will be £500m, which the insurer expects to fund from its annual excess cash generation. Under the terms of the deal, Standard Life will control 51 per cent of the voting rights within the partnership group.
Pension risk transfers involve companies or pension schemes transferring the financial responsibility of defined benefit pension plans to a third party, typically an insurer. This sector has seen significant growth recently as corporate pension schemes have moved into surplus and firms seek to offload risk.
Andy Briggs, chief executive of Standard Life, stated that the partnership will allow them to offer trustees and sponsors of large pension schemes an alternative for securing their members' pensions across the UK, by combining their capabilities with their partners' private markets expertise and capital.
This deal is the latest in a series of tie-ups between UK insurers and private capital firms in Britain's £1.3 trillion pension buyout sector. The market's recent surge is attributed to higher interest rates reducing the value of plan liabilities, making purchases more affordable.