Three years ago the Ministry of Defence agreed to pay up to £45m into the pension scheme if the company floated. Graham Love, Qinetiq’s chief executive, told The Sunday Times it would call on the entire amount, and would add another £45m from the £150m expected to be raised from the sale of shares.
The arrangements have received the approval of the pensions regulator, David Norgrove.
Love also confirmed that the MoD would benefit from any property sales by Qinetiq. A clawback arrangement allows the government to take a portion of profits on property sales until July 2013. The government would keep from 50% to 9% of the surplus, the proportion reducing over time.
But Love said he did not expect any big property deals in the near future, because the company had already made two big transactions. In the first deal, the MoD took all of the sale receipts, and in the second the clawback applied.
The controversial float, which will result in Carlyle, the American private-equity group, holding a stake worth £340m for which it paid £42.4m three years ago, is likely to trigger a shake-up of the Qinetiq board.
Advertisement
The government has three seats on the board. Richard Gillingwater, head of the government’s shareholder executive, Colin Balmer, managing director of the Cabinet Office, and Trevor Wooley, finance director of the MoD, are the current appointees.
The number of government seats will fall to one after the float, but Love said he had not yet been told who would remain on the board. Another independent non-exec will also be recruited.