Fujitsu UK and Ireland bags £800m pension pot investment

Fujitsu UK and Ireland has confirmed that its Japanese subsidiary has made good on its promise to pay 800 million into three of the vendor's pension schemes.

The payment was announced during the firm's third quarter financial results, and is designed to shore up the financial standing of three of the firm's UK pension schemes, which have around 21,000 members.

The move will allow Fujitsu's UK and Ireland arm to reduce its annual pension scheme contributions, and in turn ramp up its investments in the company's continued UK growth.

In a statement, Fujitsu UK and Ireland said: "This action underlines the company's responsible approach to invest in the UK economy and to honour its commitments to current and former employees."

Fujitsu employs around 14,000 staff in the UK and claims to have increased its headcount by 3.6 per cent over the past 12 months.

Duncan Tait, chief executive of Fujitsu UK & Ireland, said the payment will allow the company to maintain its contribution to the economic health of UK PLC.

"Our 2012 investment in the UK was close to 50 million, including more than 14 million spent on R&D. Our total investment is more than 3 billion. This move only strengthens our ability to contribute to economic growth on these shores," said Tait.

"[This] has created space for the UK and Ireland business to invest over the coming years and to continue to drive growth within the UK," he added.

Richard Holway, chairman of UK analyst house TechMarketView, said the investment from Fujitsu Japan constitutes a huge vote of confidence for the firm's UK operations and management team.

"I make no excuses for being an out-and-out supporter of UK Tech," said Holway in an email alert to TechMarketView's subscribers.

"Of course, I'd prefer those companies to be UK-owned, [but] ownership is not as important as the good' companies can do to the UK economy by creating jobs, supporting an SME ecosystem, paying taxes and generally being a Good Citizen'. On that basis, Fujitsu UK really does score highly."