Boots Pension Scheme secures a £4.8 billion full buy-in with Legal & General

-Trustee of the Boots Pension Scheme has agreed £4.8 billion buy-in with Legal & General -Buy-in insures all 53,000 members in the scheme, making it the largest single transaction of its kind -Boots to bring forward c.£170m of committed payments to the Scheme and commits an extra c.£500m Transaction safeguards members’ benefits against market uncertainty and improved life expectancies

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Walgreens Boots Alliance has today announced that the Trustee of the Boots Pension Scheme has agreed a £4.8 billion buy-in with Legal & General, with the financial support of Boots. All 53,000 members in the Scheme are insured by the buy-in, making it the largest single transaction of its kind.

Boots will bring forward approximately £170 million of already committed payments to the Scheme and has committed to pay extra contributions expected to be approximately £500 million to the Scheme.

The Trustee and Boots have written to the members of the Scheme to inform them of these changes. In a process expected to take up to two years, members of the Scheme will be provided with individual annuity policies issued by Legal & General, who will then be responsible for paying members' benefits directly, enabling the Scheme to be wound-up. This will transfer most economic risk in the Scheme to Legal & General, increasing the security of members’ pension benefits.

“This agreement with Legal & General gives added protection to our members’ long-term benefits by removing market uncertainty and other financial exposures. We welcome the additional payment from Boots, in addition to the sum it has already committed. As a result, the Scheme will not be reliant on Boots to pay benefits to members and our members’ pensions will be protected for decades to come. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow Trustee directors and our predecessors, the Scheme officers and advisers for their hard work over many years to reach this positive outcome for our members.”