JLT Employee Benefits is set to acquire Ensign Pensions Administration from the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund.

The amount paid for the acquisition has not yet been disclosed by either party, with the transaction remaining subject to regulatory approval.

Ensign Pensions Administration, formerly known as MNPA, provides admin services for pensions scheme trustees and their members. Ensign employs over 250 staff in Birmingham and Leatherhead and these offices will be incorporated into JLT EB’s existing network of offices.

JLT has no intention of launching a redundancy programme in either office.

“Following this transaction JLT’s wide range of services becomes available to Ensign clients, JLT EB CEO Mark Wood said.

“The combined business will be particularly strong in the bulk purchase annuity market, where JLT is the clear market leader.”

Ensign’s origins go back more than 75 years starting life as the in-house management and administration team for the MNOPF, a major industry-wide pension fund whose members are still looked after by Ensign Pensions Group today.

MNOPF chief executive Andrew Waring said the time was right for a business deal to go ahead.

“In view of the imminent winding-up of the fund’s Old Section and the New Section targeting full funding in around 10 years’ time, the trustee of the MNOPF reviewed its continuing ownership of EPA and concluded that the time was right for the business to be acquired by a strong third party.”

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