Capita Group has won a 10 year contract worth an estimated £120 million to supply third party self-invested personal pensions (SIPP) plans administration services to Winterthur Life, the UK life & pensions arm of Credit Suisse. Under the deal, Capita will assume control of Winterthur's subsidiary Personal Pensions Management Limited (PPML).
Capita will purchase the entire share capital of Winterthur's PPML business for an undisclosed sum.
Once regulatory approval has been granted, all 400 PPML employees are expected to transfer to Capita. The unit will be renamed Capita PPML and the existing business will continue to be administered at the PPML's offices in Salisbury.
PPML delivers end-to-end SIPPs policy administration services for over 23,000 existing plans. The unit was at the centre of a contract termination dispure with UK software house Wealth Management Software that was resolved just last month.
In addition to servicing Winterthur, Capita will assume responsibility for the provision of SIPP administration services for a number of financial services firms.
Commenting on the take-over of PPML, Rod Aldridge, executive chairman of the Capita Group, says: "We will continue to develop and grow this business introducing the latest technology and processes to further improve quality and provide a very efficient administration system."
Capita says the UK government's proposed pensions' taxation reforms will increase the popularity of SIPPs and continuing regulation across the marketplace will drive companies towards outsourcing administration.