Rentokil, the pest-control company, has signed a deal with Pension Insurance Corporation to take responsibility for its £1.5bn retirement fund — confirming 2018 as a record year for this market.

The deal, which covers 14,200 pension scheme members, is the first in a two-stage transaction that Rentokil hopes will “completely extinguish all future pension liabilities from the company’s balance sheet”, it said in a statement on December 4.