Arco moves £135m scheme to Clara
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The Arco Group Pension and Life Assurance Scheme has agreed to transfer its 1,281 members and £135m of assets to Clara Pension Trust.
The move to the defined benefit consolidator is made to support the sale of safety equipment firm Arco.
“Our role and fundamental aim is protecting the long-term interests of our members and we have carefully considered the options available to the scheme to achieve this. The sale of the business presented a unique opportunity to improve the security of members’ benefits overnight, whilst aligning with employer and shareholder objectives, and Clara’s innovative superfund was the perfect model through which to achieve this," said Jo Harris, senior trustee director at trustee firm Dalriada.
Arco's chief financial officer, Dan Carr, added: “The security of our pension scheme members was a key consideration throughout the wider sale of the business, and Clara was identified early on by KPMG as being able to provide the necessary comfort to members within the context of a corporate transaction.”
Matt Wilmington, chief transactions officer at Clara Pensions, said: "The priority remains securing a better outcome for members, but doing so can also provide greater certainty for businesses as they pursue important strategic transactions."
The trustee was supported by actuaries and investment consultants XPS Group, Pinsent Masons as pension lawyer and EY as covenant adviser. Arco took advice from KPMG as actuaries and strategic adviser, Squire Patton Boggs as pension lawyer and PwC as covenant adviser. CMS were the lawyers for Clara, while Eversheds Sutherland advised Clara's trustees.
The bridge to buyout provider recently absorbed an unnamed £40m scheme with 400 members. Earlier this year, Clara took on the £43m Vivendum DB Pension Scheme.
Superfunds were finally given a legislative framework in the Pension Schemes Act 2026, but Clara remains the only consolidator that has passed the Pensions Regulator's assessment. Its main former competitor, the Pension Superfund, mothballed its operations three years ago, after failing repeatedly to obtain regulatory approval.
Other models have since emerged, such as the flexible apportionment arrangement between asset manager Aberdeen and the Stagecoach Group Pension Scheme, but the government appears to plan to crack down on this. In June, pensions minister Torsten Bell said the Department for Work and Pensions will consult on whether and how existing FAA regulations might be strengthened.
