Rolls-Royce offloads final UK pension risk to PIC for £4.3bn

On 10 August 2025, Rolls-Royce Holdings said the trustee of the Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund had secured a £4.3bn bulk annuity buy-in with Pension Insurance Corporation, covering the final defined benefit pension scheme backed by Rolls-Royce in the UK. The transaction insured the fund’s remaining liabilities for 36,000 members and was structured as a buy-in ahead of a later full buy-out.

| Metric | 2025 | Prior Year | Change |

| Buy-in transaction size | £4.3bn | — | — |

| Members covered | 36,000 | — | — |

| Rolls-Royce net asset impact | -£0.6bn | — | — |

The members covered by the transaction comprise 15,000 pensioners and 21,000 deferred members. Rolls-Royce said the deal was funded from existing pension plan assets, with no additional funding required, although it would reduce the group’s net assets by about £0.6bn. In practice, that removes the company’s last UK defined benefit pension exposure from the balance sheet once the process is complete.

A buy-in transfers pension liabilities to an insurer in exchange for a one-off premium while the scheme remains in place, and this buy-in was secured in anticipation of a later buy-out. If that proceeds, members’ interests in the fund would be converted into individual annuity policies in their own names with PIC, and a full transfer of liabilities is expected within the following 12 months.