Uniq way of dealing with a pension-scheme crisis

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The chilled foods business Uniq took a major step yesterday towards avoiding being crippled by its pension scheme obligations. As part of the deal, the pension scheme would in effect be transferred out of Uniq to a new company, which would overcome a rule that stops a pension scheme from investing more than 5 per cent of its assets in its sponsoring employer. Asked why Uniq investors would want to agree a deal where they would give away 90 per cent of their holdings, Mr Eaton pointed out that analysts at Investec had estimated that Uniq's shares could be valued at 70p if the company was freed from its pension commitment, rather than the 7p they opened at yesterday. "I would tell shareholders it is better to have 10 per cent of something rather than 100 per cent of nothing," said Mr Eaton.