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CMS advises Heathrow’s BAA Pension Scheme on £370m buy-in with Legal & General

10 February 2022

International law firm CMS has acted for the Trustee of London Heathrow’s BAA Pension Scheme (the Scheme) in relation to its c£370m buy-in with Legal & General Assurance Society Limited (Legal & General). 

The buy-in transaction with Legal & General has secured the benefits of more than 1,400 retirees of the Scheme and represents the Scheme’s second Pension Risk Transfer transaction with Legal & General. It follows its £325m buy-in in 2018 covering 1,300 retirees, for which CMS also advised and which was accompanied by an innovative bespoke bond issuance. 

An umbrella contract has been established as part of this latest transaction, enabling the Trustee to potentially insure further liabilities quickly and easily as they continue their de-risking plans.

James Parker, Partner at CMS, who led the transaction, comments: “We are delighted to have supported the Trustee on its second buy-in transaction with Legal & General. It’s been a tremendously collaborative exercise between the advisors, trustees, corporate sponsor and Legal & General. The process was extremely smooth and we enjoyed working with the team at LCP to bring this to a successful conclusion in a short timeframe.”

The CMS team also included Dominic Harris, Katherine Harnett and Katie Devlin. 

This transaction is the latest in what has been a hugely successful period for the CMS Pensions de-risking team, having advised on over £18bn of longevity transactions in 2021, including most recently advising the Imperial Tobacco Pension Fund in relation to its £1.8bn bulk purchase annuity transaction with Standard Life; the Trustee of the Sanofi Pension Scheme on a £760m buy-in with Legal & General; and the Trustee of the Fujitsu General (U.K) Co. Limited Pension and Life Assurance Plan on a full buy-in transaction with Aviva.