Pension Insurance Corporation Group Limited, ultimate parent company of Pension Insurance Corporation plc (“PIC”), the specialist insurer of UK defined benefit pension schemes, today presents its results for the six months to 30 June 2023.

Tracy Blackwell, Chief Executive Officer of PIC, said: “I am pleased to report that PIC had an excellent first half of the year. We completed the largest ever bulk annuity transaction, as well as paying more than £1 billion of pension payments, our highest ever six-monthly figure, on which we had a customer satisfaction rating of 99.3%.

“We created significant social value through our purposeful investment strategy, investing more than £1 billion in infrastructure assets during the six-month period. This includes funding the UK’s first reservoir for more than 30 years and completing our second investment to support the UK’s Government Property Agency, investing £268 million in their Croydon hub. We are delighted that our private rental sector development at Manchester New Victoria has now welcomed its first tenants.

“With a solvency ratio of 210%, the strength of our balance sheet will serve us well as increasing numbers of well-funded defined benefit schemes seek the security of the insurance regulatory framework.”

Highlights as at 30 June 2023

Policyholder payments and customer satisfaction

– Record pension payments of £1.1 billion, with customer satisfaction score of 99.3%

– Record number of pensions insured, at 339,900 (FY2022: 302,200)

– PIC won several awards based on our customer service, including the Customer

Commitment Award at the Institute of Customer Service Awards, Risk Reduction

Provider of the Year award at the UK Pensions Awards, and Risk Management

Provider of the Year at the Pensions Age awards

Record new business, strong operating profit growth

– New business premiums of £6.5 billion (HY2022: £2.4 billion), which primarily includes the record buy-in of two schemes sponsored by RSA Group

– Significant growth potential in the UK pension risk transfer market: potential for over £200 billion of UK PRT demand over the next three years

– Our numbers are reported under IFRS 17 for the first time, and the comparatives, where noted, have been restated accordingly

– Adjusted operating profit before tax2  (“AOPBT”) of £506 million (HY2022: £152 million), driven by higher new business profits and expected returns on surplus assets

– Inaugural dividend of 7.5 pence per ordinary share paid to PICG shareholders

Robust balance sheet and low risk, purposeful investment portfolio

– Strong capital position with solvency ratio of 210% (FY2022: 226%)

– Portfolio of £44.9 billion3 (FY2022: £41.2 billion), with insurance liabilities4 of £38.7 billion (FY2022: £33.7 billion)

  • No defaults for the year to date and more upgrades than downgrades in the portfolio
  • No exposure within the portfolio to small cap technology firms
  • Bank investments are primarily in large, well-diversified institutions, with no exposure to US regional banks
  • No direct commercial real estate loans and limited exposure to commercial property more generally, representing less than 2% of the portfolio, with an average rating of A+

– £1 billion of privately sourced debt investments in the first half – In September 2023, Fitch Ratings affirmed PIC’s A+ (Strong) Insurer Financial Strength rating