LONDON, 24 October 2012 – Aon Hewitt, the global human resource solutions business of Aon plc (NYSE:AON), has today announced the acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, of Babcock International Group plc’s Pensions Administration Office (PAO) at Brims House, Forss, in Caithness, Scotland.

The PAO is an established provider of high quality pensions administration services. It currently employs 33 people providing administration services to pension schemes with around 80,000 members. Its main focus is the administration of public sector final salary schemes, but it has expanded over the last five years to take on the administration of other schemes including private sector schemes and those with Defined Contribution (DC) and Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) structures.

Aon Hewitt has been involved with the PAO since December 2010 when it partnered with Babcock to undertake a major operational review and change programme across the business.

Andy Cox, CEO of Aon Hewitt UK, said:

"The administration operation at Brims House is important to our strategic development plans in Scotland and in the UK more widely. The development and growth of the Forss business over the next three years is a key part of our strategy to enter and build our public sector pensions business.

"Given Aon Hewitt’s involvement with the Pensions Administration Office in Caithness over the past year and a half, we know that we are acquiring an exceptional team, with high standards and well-developed expertise."

Andy Cox continued:

"As market leaders in pensions administration, we have expressed our desire to expand our presence in the public sector market, and today’s announcement represents an ideal opportunity to further that ambition. We are committed to growing the business in Caithness over the coming years.”

Roger Hardy, Babcock's managing director at Dounreay said:

“I very much welcome Aon Hewitt’s commitment to the Pension Administration Office at Forss and its plans to grow the business as a core tenet of its strategic plan to enter and develop its public sector pensions administration business.

"We are working now with our partners to deliver more opportunities like this for other highly-skilled assets in Caithness – the talent pool that exists in our site licence company at Dounreay.  We want to migrate these skills into new markets and bring more global companies like Aon Hewitt to the Caithness economy to help build an economic future beyond Dounreay and so ensure the site's lasting legacy is one of enterprise, investment and jobs.”

Media Contact: 

Colin Mayes                                                  Olivia Griffiths
Aon Hewitt                                                      Capital MSL
01372 733689                                              020 7255 5161
colin.mayes@aonhewitt.com                   olivia.griffiths@capitalmsl.com

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About Aon Hewitt
Aon Hewitt is the global leader in human resource solutions.  The company partners with organisations to solve their most complex benefits, talent and related financial challenges, and improve business performance.  Aon Hewitt designs, implements, communicates and administers a wide range of human capital, retirement, investment management, health care, compensation and talent management strategies.  With more than 29,000 professionals in 90 countries, Aon Hewitt makes the world a better place to work for clients and their employees.  For more information on Aon Hewitt, please visit www.aonhewitt.com.

About Aon
Aon plc (NYSE: AON) is the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services. Through its more than 61,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon unites to empower results for clients in over 120 countries via innovative and effective risk and people solutions and through industry-leading global resources and technical expertise. Aon has been named repeatedly as the world's best broker, best insurance intermediary, reinsurance intermediary, captives manager and best employee benefits consulting firm by multiple industry sources. Visit www.aon.com for more information on Aon and www.aon.com/manchesterunited to learn about Aon's global partnership and shirt sponsorship with Manchester United.

About Babcock International Group plc
Babcock International Group is the UK's leading engineering support services organisation with revenue of circa £3bn in 2012 and an order book of £13 billion. Its 25,000 employees deliver 600 services across six continents and manage customer assets worth £42 billion. It is Scotland’s largest engineering employer. In Caithness, the Babcock Dounreay Partnership is delivering Britain’s biggest nuclear site closure contract. www.babcockinternational.com