UK financial services company Prudential is to acquire the portfolio of in-force pension annuities written in the with-profits fund of UK insurer Phoenix Life & Pensions.

Under the terms of the agreement, Prudential will initially provide reassurance to Phoenix Life & Pensions (PLP), which will continue to pay the annuitants, with Prudential reimbursing the annuity payments to PLP.

The goal is to transfer the PLP book, which covers about 52,500 policies with assets of GBP 1.5bn, to Prudential under a Part VII scheme, at which point Prudential will take over direct responsibility for the payment of all annuitants.

Phoenix Life & Pensions (PLP) was bought by Resolution Life Group from Royal & Sun Alliance in September 2004.

The transaction is not expected to affect the terms of the annuity payments made to PLP’s customers, and should generate a premium income of around GBP 145m on an APE basis.