Administration October 4, 2006

UK Firm to Buy DB Plans

April 10, 2006 (PLNSPONSOR.com) - Paternoster Ltd., a new UK firm that plans to acquire the assets and liabilities of UK defined benefit pension plans, has raised £500 million ($870.4 million).
Reported by

According to a Business Insurance news report, the London-based firm is awaiting approval from the UK Financial Services Authority to begin operation.

Paternoster said it would focus exclusively on acquiring the defined benefit pension obligations of UK companies “as additional pressure builds on them to recognize and manage volatile deficits” and they seek to remove deficits from their balance sheets.

Paternoster was set up by Mark Wood, formerly head of the UK life insurance arm of Prudential PLC. The company said in a statement that it had secured equity financing from a consortium of investors led by Deutsche Bank AG and Eton Park International LLP, according to the report.

“We believe that the corporate defined benefit pension market is one that has been historically overlooked and underserved,” Wood said in the statement.

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