Friends Provident enters new pension partnership with Babcock

Babcock International Group Plc, the UK wide support services group, has selected Friends Provident to administer a single defined contribution pension scheme for its employees who do not have access to its existing DB schemes.

This new pension structure will merge the existing unbundled DC schemes and contract based schemes into one consolidated arrangement for the UK wide Group.

Friends Provident was appointed to provide the trust-based scheme following an extensive review and consultation process by Babcock encompassing a short-list of 19 potential providers.

All new employees plus those who are members of the existing DC schemes across the Group are being transferred into this new arrangement provided by FP that now has almost 5000 members.

As part of the new design, Friends Provident has established risk rated, blended funds for Babcock employees enabling changes to be made to the underlying construction of the funds as and when appropriate. These bespoke funds not only offer a more straight-forward fund choice for members but also greater flexibility for employers and advisers. In addition to this Friends Provident offers online access to a further carefully selected range of funds.

Russell Welsh, head of corporate pensions sales for Friends Provident commented: "This strategic partnership marks the beginning of a new integrated pension platform for Babcock International.  As part of this members of the scheme will now be able to model their retirement plans through a range of funds, which can be accessed online. We are pleased to be able to support Babcock in consolidating its defined contribution pension arrangements and offering employees an easy to use a straightforward fund choice that meets their investment needs. We look forward to developing our flexible offering in line with Babock's evolving needs."

Andrew Birkett, Group Pensions Manager at Babcock International said: "As a result of a number of acquisitions, the Group was running over a dozen different DC schemes. The Group has a long established history of occupational pension provision and we wanted to consolidate all of them into one of our existing Trust based schemes which would offer our members some quality investment options at very competitive prices. We also wanted access on line with the ability for our members to be able to switch existing funds or their future contributions easily. We achieved this with the help and flexibility of Friends Provident to shape the scheme to be one that meets our future needs."