Coats completes pension scheme de-risking

Industrial thread maker Coats Group said it had completed de-risking its UK defined benefit pension scheme by purchasing a £1.3bn bulk annuity policy.

Coats said the buy-in was "the final and most significant step in Coats' fully insuring its UK pension obligations" and would also give it the option to remove the scheme fully from the group's balance sheet in the future "at very limited further administrative cost".

"Now that the scheme is fully funded and cash contributions have ceased this will lock in a significant improvement in the group's free cash generation."

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com