JUST Group saw shares soar yesterday after the company revealed the boom in pensions buyout deals had helped boost its underlying profits by 19 per cent.

The Surrey firm completed 56 pensions de-risking deals, worth £2.6bn, successfully profiting on the pension's buyout boom.

Shares closed up nine per cent. Company chief David Richardson said the "very strong results" marked a "record start to the year".

Higher interest rates over the previous year have improved pension scheme funding levels, in a shift that has let them pass liability over to specialist insurers through bulk annuity deals.

This has in turn driven a boom in pensions buy-out deals that analysts have said could see £200bn worth of bulk purchase annuity deals over the next three years.

Earlier this month, Just Group completed its most valuable pensions buyout deal after finalising a £513m buy-in to the GKN Group pensions scheme.

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