Rank

On 28 February 2008, Rothesay Life announced an agreement with The Rank Group Plc (“Rank”) to purchase the Rank Group Pension Scheme, which had assets of approximately £700m.

The Rank Group is a leading European gaming business, based in the UK and listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Group's principal activities are the operation of bingo clubs and casinos in the UK with complementary on-line gaming and bookmaking services.

Rank ran a final salary pension plan for its UK employees which had been closed to new hires for 8 years.

The pension assets and liabilities were significant in the context of the company’s market capitalisation.

Given the healthy funding position of the Plan, Rank, like many corporates wanted to settle its pension liabilities and achieve some refund of surplus:

• In late 2007, Rank started collecting bids from pension fund buy-out providers to transfer the liabilities of the plan expressing a desire to execute in the first quarter.

The selected structure provided Rank with a complete removal of the pension liability from the corporate balance sheet.

The structure provided the members with insurance-based security for their benefits granted by Rothesay Life, the 100% Goldman Sachs owned FSA regulated insurer.

Crystallisation of surplus through the transaction allowed benefit improvements for some of the Plan members.