Tate & Lyle, the foods and ingredients manufacturer, has signed a deal with Legal & General to buy out around a third of its £1.1bn pension fund – a big and high-profile transaction at the end of a quiet year for pensions buyouts.

The deal, announced this morning, involves Tate & Lyle paying £347m from its pension fund in a mixture of cash and bonds to Legal & General, in exchange for a guarantee from the insurer covering about 30% of its pension liability.