UK pension provider and insurer Standard Life has launched a strategic partnership to expand its pension risk transfer (PRT) business, focusing on the largest and most complex defined benefit (DB) schemes.

CVC Capital Partners, Prudential Financial, Goldman Sachs and MS&AD Insurance Group are part of the consortium, whose initial capital commitment will target up to £2bn to be drawn over five years.

Standard Life is set to contribute £500m and will maintain operational control of the partnership, which is subject to regulatory approval.

“By bringing together our comprehensive PRT capabilities with our partners’ specialist private markets capabilities and significant capital resources … we will be able to offer trustees and sponsors for the largest pension schemes an alternative to secure the pensions of their members across the UK,” said Standard Life’s group chief executive Andy Briggs.

With approximately £1.2tn of UK DB pension liabilities yet to transfer to insurers, the partnership aims to give corporate sponsors more options de-risk their legacy pension obligations.

Read more: UK insurers pile £350bn into private credit sector

Meanwhile, access to differentiated private markets origination is expected to improve Standard Life’s pricing competitiveness and structuring flexibility.

CVC’s president, Peter Rutland, said the partnership is “ideally suited to CVC’s insurance asset management franchise and credit origination capabilities”. CVC said it will commit £400m to the partnership and provide access to a broad range of private market instruments, such as asset backed lending, structured credit, real estate credit, infra credit, direct lending, and opportunistic and liquid credit, to support insurers’ long-term liability management objectives.

Earlier this year, CVC’s credit & insurance strategy also saw the launch of a partnership with AIG and the acquisition of CVC Marathon.