Mubasher: Walmart’s Asda announced a GBP 3.8 billion ($4.88 billion) “buy-in” with the UK’s biggest specialist annuity insurance company Rothesay Life to secure the benefits for 12,300 members of one of its pension plans, according to Reuters.

The supermarket chain said a full buy-out of the scheme will be made in late 2020 or early 2021, after paying a one-off final contribution of nearly $1 billion.

The deal does not include Asda’s defined contribution pension scheme, which provided current pension arrangements to the majority of its employees.

“This transaction is good news for members of the scheme, simplifies the Asda balance sheet and will transfer our pension liabilities at a competitive price,” Walmart’s CFO Richard Mayfield was quoted by Reuters as saying.