The Amtico Company Pension Scheme has completed a £52m full buy-in with Standard Life, securing the benefits of 425 members.

Barnett Waddingham was the trustee's lead transaction adviser, while Pinsent Masons provided legal support.

As part of this transaction, Amtico Company Pension Scheme members who have both defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pensions will keep the connection between their two types of benefits.

Completed in August, the deal strengthened the long-standing relationship between Amtico, the scheme’s sponsoring employer, and Standard Life, which began in 2015 through a trust-based pension that later transitioned to the Standard Life Master Trust.

Commenting on the deal, chairman of trustees, Bill Newman, said: “Amtico and Standard Life have developed an effective mutual relationship which has improved pension outcomes for members of our DC scheme in the Standard Life Master Trust.

“Now, the recent buy-in transaction will secure the DB scheme and ensure that members’ pensions are administered by a trusted partner going forward.”

Amtico human resources director, Jason Shelley, said: “Following an exhaustive selection process to identify Amtico’s legacy DB pension scheme’s preferred partner, Standard Life was selected, and it’s been a pleasure to work with them during this transaction.”

He said that this deal means that all the scheme’s DB, DC Master Trust, and hybrid members “have the comfort of having their funds secured with, and managed and administered by, a long-standing, trusted partner”.

“Amtico would like to thank the scheme’s trustee board for its efforts over many years to protect members’ best interests and secure this buy-in, and Barnett Waddingham and Pinsent Masons for their advice and guidance during this project,” Shelley added.

Standard Life bulk purchase annuity (BPA) transaction manager, Alex Oakley, added that Standard Life had “worked closely” with the scheme for several years, and its relationship and “deep understanding” of the scheme’s objectives enabled it to work in partnership to deliver a “smooth and timely” buy-in.

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