I’m very pleased for Stagecoach, Aberdeen and the Stagecoach Group Pension for pulling off this deal. It makes life easier for the bus company, it benefits the asset manager with new assets and a pension scheme in surplus but most of all it means that 22,000 members of the scheme get more protection and a promise of a financially better retirement.
No one yet has had the guts to follow the Trustees of the Stagecoach DB pension plan and walk away from buy-out where the sponsor is fed up with a pension scheme it no longer wants.
Beyond the immediate benefits, the project shows how well-funded schemes can take alternative approaches to improve outcomes while maintaining financial stability.
The numbers speak for themselves. This was a job well done and PWC can pat themselves on their own back. The final shout out must go to the Trustees and who orchestrated the deal.
Let’s hope that Stagecoach has a new confidence in ensuring that a new group of staff who are not in the Stagecoach Group Scheme, get a wage for life that ensure that they can leave work with a wage for life.