Prudential UK Enters Into Buy-In Agreement with GlaxoSmithKline

Prudential UK enters into GBP900 million bulk annuity buy-in agreement with GlaxoSmithKline.

2010-11-25

LONDON, ENGLAND, November 25, 2010 (Press-News.org) Prudential UK has entered into two bulk annuity buy-in contracts with the Trustees of the GlaxoSmithKline ("GSK") Pension Scheme and the GSK Pension Fund for a tranche of pensioner members within their defined benefit pension schemes. The transactions cover around 15 per cent of GSK's UK defined benefit pensioner liabilities and have an aggregate value of approximately GBP900 million.

Under the terms of the agreement, GSK has purchased bulk annuity policies from Prudential which will take on responsibility for a portion of the pensioner benefits payable by the Trustees of the GSK Pension Scheme and Pension Fund. GSK will continue to administer the Scheme and Fund and the terms of the pension payments made to its scheme members will remain unchanged.

Andrew Crossley, deputy chief executive, Prudential UK & Europe, said: "Prudential has a unique set of capabilities in the annuities market including extensive longevity experience, a superior investment track record and operational scale. Our strategy for bulk annuities is to participate selectively in the market and only enter into transactions which meet our strict requirements for return on capital. This agreement demonstrates our ability to complete complex and innovative transactions within the bulk annuity marketplace.

"Our financial strength and strong track record continue to be significant factors for pension scheme trustees looking for a safe and secure home for their pensions. We believe that the GSK Pension Scheme and Pension Fund will benefit from our expertise and experience in the pensions and annuities markets."

This contract will be recorded for accounting purposes within Prudential's fourth quarter results for 2010.

About Prudential:
"Prudential" is a trading name of The Prudential Assurance Company Limited, which is registered in England and Wales. This name is also used by other companies within the Prudential Group, which between them provide a range of financial products including annuities, life assurance, bonds, pension funds, a tax calculator and retirement plans.

Prudential offers customers pensions and annuities, pensions retirement income, insurance and investment opportunities.

Note to Editors:
The Prudential / GSK agreement is a 'buy-in' of annuities rather than a 'buy-out' of pension liabilities. A 'buy-in' is where a group annuity contract is bought as fund investments and held by the Trustees. It belongs to the pension fund, not individual members. The Trustees hold the policy as a fund asset to meet its liabilities, and receives income from it to pay pensioners.

In effect, the GSK Pension Scheme / Fund have chosen to invest in an annuity policy to hold alongside their other assets. Individual scheme members will not become Prudential policyholders as they would in a 'buy-out'. Instead, the Pensions Scheme / Fund will receive payments from Prudential which match the money the Trustees pay out to pensioners.

Website: http://www.pru.co.uk/

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Avalon Waterways Introduces New Ships to Keep Fleet Youngest on Europe's Rivers

2010-11-25

Avalon Waterways continues to be the UK's fastest growing river cruise company with the youngest fleet on Europe's waterways as ships average 2 years in age. This year saw the launch of two new ships, the MS Avalon Felicity and MS Avalon Luminary, with another due to come into service in 2011, MS Avalon Panorama. Avalon Felicity and Luminary feature the same contemporary and innovative design as their sister ships, offering the most spacious and well-appointed staterooms in European river cruising. Sized at 172 square feet, the staterooms are the largest on Europe's ...

Lighting Up Without Lighting Up: the E Cig Version 2.0 is Now Available

2010-11-25

Some of us are familiar with the electronic cigarettes, some of us have tried earlier versions to help in the battle to quit smoking and have had some success. Well the newer, or version 2.0, units are on the shelves at stores and on the Internet now. This newer 2-piece model has the atomizer built into each refill cartridge. This technology has greatly improved the experience. These newer version 2.0 e cigs produce a much greater volume of vapor which gives the user the same exact look, taste and feel of lighting up the regular way. In fact, a recent independent study ...

Genomic 'markers' may head off thousands of thyroid surgeries

2010-11-24

AURORA, Colo. (Nov. 22, 2010) – Doctors at the University of Colorado School of Medicine were concerned recently when they found a nodule in the thyroid of a 64-year-old Colorado man. They extracted cells from the nodule, hoping to determine whether the man had cancer. But the biopsy results were inconclusive. Even a few months ago, such uncertainty would have likely led to surgery to remove all or part of the thyroid. At least this patient would have faced a tense waiting period to see if, over time, he developed clear signs of cancer. This time, however, the CU doctors ...

The physics of coffee rings

2010-11-24

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 23, 2010 -- For centuries, intellectuals have met at the ring-stained surfaces of coffee shops to pore over the most pressing problems of the day -- but has anyone ever pondered the coffee rings they left behind? What causes the formation of stain patterns left behind by coffee droplets on a surface? You might think coffee ring formation, first described quantitatively by Deegan et al in a heavily cited article, is the most widely and ritualistically performed experiment in the world, given the prevalence of caffeine in cultures. But most of ...

Optimizing large wind farms

2010-11-24

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 23, 2010 -- Wind farms around the world are large and getting larger. Arranging thousands of wind turbines across many miles of land requires new tools that can balance cost and efficiency to provide the most energy for the buck. Charles Meneveau, who studies fluid dynamics at Johns Hopkins University, and his collaborator Johan Meyers from Leuven University in Belgium, have developed a model to calculate the optimal spacing of turbines for the very large wind farms of the future. They will present their work today at the American Physical ...

Lyfish-inspired pumps

2010-11-24

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 23, 2010 -- To the causal aquarium visitor, the jellyfish doesn't seem to be a particularly powerful swimmer; compared to a fish, it glides slowly and peacefully. But for Janna Nawroth, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the undulations of this simple invertebrate hold secrets that may make possible a new generation of tiny pumps for medical applications and soft robotics -- work she describes today at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting in Long Beach, CA "Most pumps ...

Heating nanoparticles to kill tumor cells

2010-11-24

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 23, 2010 -- Magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH) is a promising new cancer treatment that essentially "fries" cells inside tumors. The procedure has been used successfully in prostate, liver, and breast tumors. Magnetic nanoparticles (each billionths of a meter in size) are injected into the body intravenously and diffuse selectively into cancerous tissues. Add a high-frequency magnetic field, and the particles heat up, raising the temperature of the tumor cells. "The entire tumor volume is heated above a threshold treatment temperature -- typically ...

Secrets of sharks' success

2010-11-24

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 23, 2010 -- New research from the University of South Florida suggests that one of the evolutionary secrets of the shark's success hides in one of its tiniest traits -- flexible scales on the bodies of these peerless predators that make them better hunters by allowing them to change directions while moving at full speed. The key to this ability lies in the fact that the scales control water flow separation across the creatures' bodies, says Amy Lang of the University of Alabama who will present work she performed with her colleagues at the University ...

What makes flies attack?

2010-11-24

Pity the poor female fruit fly. Being a looker is simply not enough, it seems. If you're to get a date, much less a proposal, you must also smell and act like a girl. Otherwise, you might just have a fight on your hands. Read more in next week's issue of the online, open access journal PLoS Biology. As with most animals, Drosophila face the problem of distinguishing between a potential mate and a potential competitor. If, when meeting a second fruit fly, a male fly thinks "female," he'll begin courting her. But if he senses another male, he'll fight. What triggers these ...

New study: Mexico's forest communities excel in good management, outperform other strategies for capturing carbon to slow climate change

2010-11-24

### El Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible, A.C. (the Mexican Civil Council for Sustainable Forestry, known as CCMSS) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that encourages and promotes conservation of forest ecosystems that are managed by the forest communities themselves. Known as Manejo Forestal Comunitario, or MFC, this system is supported by CCMSS members, who work in collaboration with communities and ejidos to put in place sustainable practices in forest management and improve the development, conservation, industrialization and commercialization ...

World Hormone Day 2025 – global endocrine community unites to raise public awareness of the small steps everyone can take towards good hormone health

Water quality could be degraded by development and conversion of forests upstream, with sediment levels and nitrogen concentrations also worsened, per modelling analysis of the Middle Chattahoochee wa

Prudential UK Enters Into Buy-In Agreement with GlaxoSmithKline

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: