Arcadia Group pension schemes complete £850m buy-in with Aviva

Written by Adam Cadle

10/02/2023

The trustee of the Arcadia Group and Arcadia Group Senior Executive Pension Schemes have agreed an £850m buy-in with Aviva, securing benefits in excess of Pension Protection Fund (PPF) levels for 8,800 members.

Aviva was selected following a "competitive and comprehensive" selection process, run on behalf of the trustees by Barnett Waddingham, with Gowling WLG providing advice.

Under the buy-in, Aviva will provide members of the Arcadia Group Pension Scheme with the full scheme benefits that they would have been entitled to if the insolvency and PPF assessment period had not taken place.

For the Arcadia Group Senior Executive Pension Scheme, meanwhile, pensions have been secured at the level they would have been in 2022 if the insolvency and PPF assessment period had not happened.

However, further work is still being carried out to determine the future level of pension increases for members of the Arcadia Group Senior Executives Pension Scheme.

Arcadia's defined benefit (DB) schemes initially entered PPF assessment in December 2020 after the Arcadia Group's insolvency, although the scheme trustees had since suggested that the schemes could manage to avoid falling under the remit of the PPF after trustees managed to accumulate £173m from the sale of assets.

Aviva head of bulk purchase annuity origination Jamie Cole stated: “We are delighted to be securing the benefits of more than 8,000 members of the two schemes, providing security for members, and we look forward to welcoming them as Aviva customers once the buyout is complete.

"The trustees’ goal of securing the best outcome for members and strong collaboration between parties helped achieve a smooth transaction.”

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