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Eversheds Sutherland acts for Legal & General on £2.4bn pension buy-out

  • United Kingdom
  • Global

    08-10-2018

    Eversheds Sutherland has advised longstanding client Legal & General on a £2.4bn buy-out for the Nortel Networks UK Pension Plan, which covers around 15,500 pensioner members and around 7,200 deferred members.

    The Plan’s sponsor went into administration in 2009 and the Plan entered a Pension Protection Fund (PPF) assessment period, where it has remained whilst worldwide litigation and insolvency proceedings were ongoing. This transaction has allowed Nortel Networks UK Pensions Trust Ltd, (the Trustee) to secure benefits in excess of PPF levels with Legal & General and the Plan will not enter the PPF.

    The Eversheds Sutherland team was led by corporate insurance Partner Hugo Laing with support from pensions Partner Mark Latimour and associates Henry Dean and Rosamund Wood.

    The team at Eversheds Sutherland also worked closely with the key deal team members at Legal & General, including Dominic Moret (Director, Pension Risk Transfer), Rachel Cutts (New Business Actuary) and Helena Hawthorn (Head of Legal).

    Partner Hugo Laing commented:

    “We are delighted to be part of this important transaction, helping our longstanding client Legal & General. It was a pleasure working collaboratively with the teams at Legal & General, KPMG and Travers Smith to ensure we successfully achieved the desired outcome for all parties.

    ”2018 has seen an unprecedented level of pension de-risking deals in the UK and the Eversheds Sutherland’s Global Insurance Group in this area has gone from strength to strength having been involved in some of the largest and most complicated transactions in the UK, US and Ireland.”

    Hugo Laing, Partner

    This information is for guidance purposes only and should not be regarded as a substitute for taking legal advice. Please refer to the full terms and conditions on our website.

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