Macfarlanes has advised the Trustee of an unnamed UK pension scheme on a £500m bulk purchase annuity (BPA) transaction with M&G, which insured the benefits of c.3,200 pensioners and deferred members. This transaction is thought to be the market’s first BPA deal to share value with a corporate sponsor.

The first of its kind structure is designed to allow trustees to insure the scheme members in exactly the same way as a traditional buy-in transaction, whilst also allowing corporate sponsors to participate in the risk and reward generated from insuring their well-funded UK pension scheme.

The Macfarlanes team was led by pensions partner Faye Jarvis. The team also included insurance partner Andrew Barton and senior counsel Madison Kaur.