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Global rules on foreign direct investment (FDI)
Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
United Kingdom | Publication | February 2024
On January 23, 2024, judgment was handed down in Newell Trustees Ltd v Newell Rubbermaid UK Services Ltd. The Court considered the validity of scheme changes converting members’ final salary benefits to money purchase benefits, following their transfer to a new DC section of the scheme in 1992.
The judgment considered several aspects of pensions law, including:
The judgment also considered, and rejected, a claim that the method by which members were selected for the transfer and conversion process constituted unlawful age discrimination. Members under the age of 40 were transferred to the DC section automatically, members aged 40-44 were given the choice to stay in the DB section or to transfer, and members over age 45 remained in the DB section. The Court found that the decision to split the members into groups according to age had been taken in 1992 before age discrimination was unlawful, and there was no rule in the current scheme provisions in conflict with the non-discrimination rule implied into schemes under the Equality Act 2010.
Thus, the employer enjoyed a comprehensive victory. The judge sympathised with the representative beneficiary but as it was more than 30 years since the transfer and no objections had been raised at the relevant time, he saw the insistence on pursuing all possible objections to its validity now as part of preparation for a scheme buy-out as “somewhat opportunistic”.
Read the judgment.
Publication
Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
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