UK – News and information group Reuters is to inject a total of £230m (€336m) into its pension funds to help eradicate a £265m deficit.

The company said it has agreed a package of measures with the trustees of its two UK final salary pension plans that will “substantially fund the pension deficit, enhance the security of members’ existing benefits and reduce the risk associated with managing the plans”.

The firm had said in April that it was in talks with trustees and that it planned to “de-risk” investment strategy.

“As such, the discussions outlined in the company’s first quarter revenue statement have been successfully concluded,” the London-based company said today.

In addition to its ordinary pension contributions, Reuters will pay a cash sum of £188m into the two pension funds in 2006 and a further £42m in 2007.

“The package of measures also includes initiatives to de-risk the investment strategy of the plans and reduce Reuters exposure to future asset and liability risk.

Elsewhere, KPMG released research saying that companies’ changing life expectancy assumptions had added some £20bn to company liabilities.

It surveyed more than 200 firms and found that companies are assuming that their staff will live for nearly one year longer on average when compared to a year earlier.

“This extra year equates to an estimated £20bn extra in pension liability on top of a collective liability of around £500bn for all quoted companies in the UK,” KPMG said.

Elsewhere, Watson Wyatt said it has been appointed as investment consultants at engineering firm the Weir Group.

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