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A European insurance coverage group backed by Apollo International Administration is nearing a £6bn takeover of UK retirement financial savings group Pension Insurance coverage Company, a deal that may additional push the US different property big 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 buyers, together with CVC Capital and Reinet Investments, a automobile backed by South African billionaire Johann Rupert, in keeping with three folks 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 most important retirement market in Europe.
It might come as US personal capital giants comparable to 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 property and has almost 400,000 policyholders within the UK, would roughly double Athora’s dimension, in keeping with firm filings. It might additionally put PIC underneath the complete possession of Athora, a fast-growing, pan-European insurer that’s backed by Apollo.
Apollo acts as a what known as a “subadviser” managing a few of Athora’s property, which means it could have a hand in managing the property of PIC’s clients.
The sale of PIC can be a big windfall for its homeowners, who additionally embody 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 automobile, first invested in PIC in 2012, shopping for a 43 per cent stake for £400mn and rising its funding over time.
PIC has expanded rapidly underneath Reinet and CVC’s possession by taking up company pension fund liabilities, and the property that again them. In 2023, it acquired £6.5bn of liabilities from normal insurer RSA, then the largest UK deal of its type.
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.
In recent times, Apollo has been an lively 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 property from UK pension funds throughout a disaster triggered by the UK’s disastrous “mini” Finances.
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