UK - Banks like Citigroup or other entities with strong covenants are starting to offer cheap buyout solutions for pension schemes which will "keeps trustees happy", Watson Wyatt has pointed out.
Watson Wyatt thinks this might be a new market developing in the UK, following the recent acquisition Thomson Regional Newspapers' pension arrangements by Citigroup.
"To begin with, the quoting activity was all around full buyout of all liabilities, evolving to bids for buyout of a specific group, such as pensioners, but the main stumbling block in the past has been the price," Andrew Reid, head of Corporate Consulting at Watson Wyatt, said.
"If getting liabilities off the balance sheet can be made a bit cheaper than buyout, with the new sponsor having a top-notch covenant that keeps trustees happy, then we wouldn't be surprised to see quite a few trades," he added.
Using its own strong covenant to cover the risk of taking on a pension plan is a new concept as Reid points out: "This is very different to the early abandonment proposals that were suggested by some of the new participants in the buy-out market.
"If financially-strong institutions are prepared to use their covenant to support these transactions, the potential demand is huge. It will be fascinating to see how much market capacity there is for this sort of activity."
"The reserving requirements for traditional insurance companies are far more stringent than for companies," said Martin Potter, senior consultant at Hymans Robertson, explaining theopportunities for banks and other entities in this form of buyout.
"It gives Citigroup fantastic space to put in place investment strategies that deliver the holy grail of lower downside risk, but with enough upside return to pay the pensions plus a healthy profit."
He added companies themselves could put similar solutions in place and keep the profit.
"Whether its banks or companies in the driving seat, finding new ways unlocking the potential value from successfully investing the UK's billions of pounds of pensions savings is becoming increasingly common," continued Potter.
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