Wragge & Co advises on £120 million pension scheme buy-out

Wragge & Co's award-winning Pensions team has advised the trustees of the £120 million, 6,000-member EMAP Flexiplan pension scheme on its buy-out by Standard Life and its ultimate wind-up. One of the UK's largest defined contribution scheme buy-outs, the deal sees Standard Life take on the financial responsibility for paying members' benefits.

Partner Richard Lee led the deal, supported by associate Lynne Holcroft and solicitor Hannah Dolman. The team worked closely with chair of trustees Rosemary Kennell, as well as scheme administrator Capita Hartshead's pensions operations director Gary Graham.

Richard Lee said: "We have advised the trustees of EMAP's pensions schemes for more than 20 years, including securing Paternoster's buy-out of the defined benefit schemes in 2007. EMAP Flexiplan was one of the UK's first large-scale defined contribution occupational pension schemes. Our commercially-focused advice and technical expertise have achieved a positive result for both trustees and members."

In this latest development, around 3,500 members transferred to Standard Life, while 750 active members joined EMAP's new group personal pension scheme. 400 members transferred to a provider of their choice and around 1,400 opted to take their benefits as a lump sum.

EMAP is a business-to-business media group which provides news and analysis across the built environment, retail, media, fashion, health, education, government and automotive sectors. Standard Life is a UK-based savings, investments and pensions company with more than 6.5 million customers worldwide. Mercer acted as financial adviser to EMAP Flexiplan.

Wragge & Co's seven-partner Pensions team has a total of 49 lawyers. This autumn, the team appointed pensions litigation director Ian Gordon from Reynolds Porter Chamberlain. Experienced in high-profile, multi-million pound pension cases in the High Court, Ian also has a reputation for advising on the day-to-day running of schemes and minimising the risk of disputes arising.

Crowned Pensions Law Firm at the Pension & Investment Provider Awards 2011, the team retains the title for a second consecutive year. Advising several £1 billion-plus schemes or their sponsoring employers, the team's clients include Alstom, AMEC, HJ Heinz, Mitchells & Butlers, Philips, Travis Perkins and ThyssenKrupp.

For further information about this press release, contact Kathryn Hobbs on +44 (0)121 685 2785, Rebecca Davies on +44 (0)121 685 3819, Gayle Redding on +44 (0)121 685 2708 or Rebecca Lum on +44 (0)121 260 9973

This press release may contain information of general interest about current legal issues, but does not give legal advice.