Squire Patton Boggs has advised the Trustees of the Halma Group Pension Plan and the Apollo Pension and Life Assurance Plan on a £250m Bulk Purchase Annuity buy-in with Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group.
The Halma Group Pension Plan is sponsored by Halma plc, and the Apollo Pension and Life Assurance Plan is sponsored by Apollo Fire Detectors Limited, whose parent company is Halma plc. The transactions were completed in September 2024.
The Trustees, sponsors and their advisers collaborated closely with Standard Life to meet both plans’ de-risking objectives and secure the buy-ins, significantly reducing risk exposure for the plans and their members.
The multidisciplinary Squire Patton Boggs team advising the Trustees was led by Pensions partner Philip Sutton and included Victoria Jeacock, Kevin Burge, Stephanie Wigman and Monika Gagat from the Pensions Practice, Robert Eke and Anjuli Chatterjee from the Financial Services Practice, Nagia Paraschou from the Data Privacy, Cybersecurity and Digital Assets Practice and Tom Barr from the Tax Strategy & Benefits Practice.
Mark Jenkins, Trustee of the Halma and Apollo Plans and Company Secretary of Halma plc, commented, “Squire Patton Boggs have done an excellent job in advising the trustees of both Plans. Nothing in the ‘pensions world’ is simple but Squire Patton Boggs have excelled in providing timely, pragmatic legal support to the trustees which enabled them to navigate issues confidently and move with pace to complete the buy-in transactions – which brings security to the members and certainty for the company.”