UK - Scottish Enterprise, the organisation established to further the development of Scotland's economy, has appointed two new advisers to its £370m (€428.4m) defined benefit (DB) pension fund.

The organisation confirmed it had appointed Hymans Robertson to take on the £732,664 contract to provide actuarial, administration and benefit services of the Scottish Enterprise Pension & Life Assurance Scheme, to include actuarial valuations and advice, scheme administration, cash management and pension and benefits consultancy.

Scottish Enterprise said in the contract award notice that the £370m scheme currently has 3,658 members, of whom 1,582 are active, 1,165 are deferred and the remainder are pensioners.

In addition, the organisation has awarded a £141,264 contract for investment consultancy services to Mercer, with the requirement to provide advice, investment monitoring and related administration.

Details from the latest annual report for 2008/09 showed from 1 April 2008 all staff employed in the Skills & Learning and Careers Scotland roles were transferred to the Skills Development Scotland body.

This meant the Skills Development Scotland replaced Scottish Enterprise as an admitted employer in the Strathclyde Pension Fund and as a consequence assumed the deficit of £2.87m previously attributed to Scottish Enterprise, therefore reducing the DB obligations by £86.5m.

Figures published relating to 31 March 2009 showed the pension scheme's liabilities had dropped from £465m to £327m over the year, however the value of the fund's assets also dropped quite significantly from £508.6m to £321.4m, to produce a deficit of £6.27m against a surplus at the end of March 2008 of £43.5m.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Nyree Stewart on + 44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email nyree.stewart@ipe.com

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