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A European insurance coverage group backed by Apollo World Administration is nearing a £6bn takeover of UK retirement financial savings group Pension Insurance coverage Company, a deal that will additional push the US different belongings large into the UK insurance coverage market.
Athora, a European-based insurer minority owned by Apollo, is near buying full possession of PIC from a consortium of traders, together with CVC Capital and Reinet Investments, a car backed by South African billionaire Johann Rupert, based on three individuals briefed on the matter. A deal may very well be introduced as quickly as this week.
The acquisition would push Athora, which operates in international locations together with Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, into the UK, the biggest retirement market in Europe.
It could come as US personal capital giants reminiscent of Apollo, Brookfield Asset Administration, KKR and Carlyle have both begun working within the UK retirement market or studied acquisitions in recent times.
PIC declined to remark. Apollo and CVC didn’t instantly reply. Sky Information first reported that PIC was nearing a sale.
PIC, which manages about £50bn in belongings and has almost 400,000 policyholders within the UK, would roughly double Athora’s measurement, based on firm filings. It could additionally put PIC underneath the total possession of Athora, a fast-growing, pan-European insurer that’s backed by Apollo.
Apollo acts as a what is known as a “subadviser” managing a few of Athora’s belongings, that means it might have a hand in managing the belongings of PIC’s clients.
The sale of PIC can be a big windfall for its homeowners, who additionally embrace Abu Dhabi Funding Authority and US credit score investor HPS Funding Administration. HPS earlier this week accomplished its $12bn sale to BlackRock.
PIC’s worth has roughly tripled since CVC first invested in 2017. Reinet, a Luxembourg-based funding car, first invested in PIC in 2012, shopping for a 43 per cent stake for £400mn and growing its funding over time.
PIC has expanded rapidly underneath Reinet and CVC’s possession by taking up company pension fund liabilities, and the belongings that again them. In 2023, it acquired £6.5bn of liabilities from normal insurer RSA, then the most important UK deal of its variety.
Athora had studied an acquisition of PIC for years, and the insurer had beforehand drawn curiosity from different US personal capital giants, together with Carlyle and KKR, the Monetary Instances beforehand reported.
Lately, Apollo has been an energetic investor within the UK, shopping for corporations together with Restaurant Group, the proprietor of the Wagamama meals chain. Final month it dedicated to lend £4.5bn to fund the event of a nuclear energy station in Somerset, England.
In 2022, a distinct Apollo insurance coverage subsidiary, Athene, purchased greater than $1bn of belongings from UK pension funds throughout a disaster triggered by the UK’s disastrous “mini” Finances.
