Increasing numbers of firms are looking to offload their employees pension schemes over months to come, new analysis shows.
Corporate buyouts of pension savings plans are set to increase, new research from Legal & General (L&G) shows.
According to the insurer, the sector could be worth £10 billion this year - with more and more firms looking to sell off their company pensions in order to offload risk. The potential financial threat of keeping these savings plans "in-house" has been heightened recently by the volatile nature of investment markets due to the credit crunch, and rising life expectancies among savings holders.
The possibility of a single £1 billion pension plan acquisition was also flagged up by the study as having a "pretty good chance" of occurring. This is because "at least" six firms with schemes of this size or bigger are understood by L&G to be considering a sell-off.
Speaking to Reuters, Simon Gadd at L&G commented: "In [the first quarter of 2008] we saw £2.5 billion to £3 billion of deals closed in the market. [The second quarter] will see about the same."
He added: "All the indications are that there could be £10 billion worth of deals done this year. From a market that saw about a billion pounds' worth of deals done a year, that is a very material increase in a short space of time."
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