The highly leveraged bids for two of Britain's biggest high street names - J Sainsbury and Alliance Boots - has thrust the PensionsRegulator into the spotlight and left some asking whether it needs more power to safeguard the pension schemes of companiestargeted by private equity.

Last week, Sir Nigel Rudd, chairman of Alliance Boots, called for the regulator to be empowered to force agreements between scheme trustees of target companies and their potential acquirers to ensure that deals are completed in a timely fashion.