Pension Corp says talks with Paternoster collapse

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - British specialist pension buyout firm Pension Corporation said on Sunday it had been it talks to buy rival Paternoster but they collapsed at the last minute in a dispute over price.

Paternoster declined to comment.

Pension Corp, set up by Edmund Truell, the founder of private equity firm Duke Street Capital, said it was "looking for greater scale in the marketplace" and would continue to seek opportunities to write new business, with several deals in the pipeline.

Paternoster's assets under management grew 71 percent to 2.7 billion pounds ($4.3 billion) in 2008, while Pension Corp's was around 2 billion.

Through pension buyouts, firms such as Pension Corp and Paternoster take over the assets and liabilities of pension schemes and the responsibility to pay scheme members their pensions. (Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.6275 pound)