Scottish mutual finalising pensions deal

Scotland’s largest financial mutual has today revealed that it is in the final stages of securing an acquisition that, if approved, will see it gain assets of about £350 million.

Scottish Friendly, whose roots date back to 1862, is aiming to purchase a bundled group pension business from Mobius Life, an independently-owned provider of institutional services to corporate pension schemes in the UK.

The transfer will, subject to the relevant approvals in the second half of this year, see 13,300 members as well as the assets move to the business based in Glasgow’s Blythswood Square. The mutual completed its largest transfer to date in June 2015 when it took over Marine & General Mutual, doubling its assets to about £2 billion.

Scottish Friendly chief executive Jim Galbraith said: “We are delighted to have been chosen by Mobius to take over and manage this part of their business. Scottish Friendly has, over the past decade, built a strong track record in successfully acquiring and managing life and pension business and Mobius customers can look forward to continuing high levels of customer service and sound asset-management.”

Adrian Swales, chief executive of Mobius Life, said it aims to develop its services for the corporate pension schemes market. “Our group personal pension business and other individual pension business is more suited to a retail specialist, which is why we selected Scottish Friendly. We are confident [that firm] will provide longer-term benefits to our bundled group pension business policyholders.” 0 Scottish Friendly chief executive Jim Galbraith