Pension Corporation's plans to raise £600m stalls

Plans by Pension Corporation – the specialist insurer created by Edmund Truell – to raise £600m in new funding have stalled, according to sources familiar with the process.

JP Morgan, the investment bank, has been working on the raising since last year and reports in February suggested the £600m target had been reached. But sources said a number of potential investors have held back. One said: "[They] want to see what they are backing before they put the cash in."

Pension Corporation, which posted a profit of more than £200m in February, has been the most active player in the pensions-buyout market in the past few years. In December it struck a deal with Cadbury to insure £500m in pension fund assets. Last year it held takeover talks with rival Paternoster, which is currently closed to new business. Since the collapse of the talks it is believed Paternoster has held informal discussions with Deutsche Bank, which already owns 40 per cent of the firm, about a full buyout. It is thought Deutsche could merge Paternoster into its Abbey Life business. Abbey Life recently completed a deal with BMW to insure the carmaker's £3bn UK final-salary pension fund through a so-called longevity swap.

A spokesman for Pension Corporation declined to comment.