Citigroup and Pension Insurance Corporation have completed the largest pensions buyout ever seen in the UK.

The deal covers the EMI Group Pension Fund’s £1.5bn liabilities and its 20,000 members, which Citi took on in 2011 to facilitate the sale of the music group.

Mercer was sole actuarial advisor to Citi's Pension Solutions group. David Ellis, bulk pensions insurance leader at Mercer UK, said: “This is a landmark transaction, demonstrating that bulk pensions insurance transactions remain viable despite what some commentators describe as adverse conditions."

The size of the deal comfortably surpasses the previous record for buyouts in the UK, held jointly by Legal & General’s buyout of T&N in 2011 and PIC’s deal with Thorn in 2008 – both for £1.1bn, and both also advised by Mercer.

Other consultants also welcomed the deal.

Dominic Grimley, risk settlement adviser and actuary at Aon Hewitt, said he was pleased to see “yet another fillip to the bulk annuity market”, and suggested it could prompt further deals. So too did Ian Aley, senior pensions risk consultant at Towers Watson, which advised the trustees.

He said: “This deal will lead other large pension schemes in particular to reconsider their views on what might be seen as an upper limit for a one-off bulk annuity transaction.

“With both annuity pricing and pension fund asset values improving in recent weeks we can expect to see significant interest in this market in coming months, and further headline deals coming through before the year is out for schemes willing to move quickly."

Clive Gilchrist of independent trustees BESTrustees and chairman of the trustee company for the scheme, said: “I have written to the fund members telling them that their benefits have been secured in full with PIC; as a trustee, fully securing benefits is the ultimate goal. An enormous amount of time and effort has been put into this by all concerned. The outcome demonstrates how worthwhile it has been.”

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