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The European Insurance Group, backed by Apollo Global Management, is approaching the acquisition of £6 billion of UK Retirement Savings Group pension insurance company.
Athora, a European-based insurance company owned by Apollo, is approaching the acquisition of full ownership of the PIC from a consortium of investors, including CVC Capital and Reinet Investments. This explains the issue, a vehicle supported by South African billionaire Johann Rupert. The deal could be announced soon this week.
The acquisition will boost Atla, which operates in countries including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, into the UK, Europe’s largest retirement market.
It will come when Giants of private US capital such as Apollo, Brookfield Asset Management, KKR, and Carlyle begin operations in the UK retirement market or have researched acquisitions in recent years.
The photo was declined to comment. Apollo and CVC didn’t respond immediately. Sky News was the first to report that PIC was approaching a sale.
According to the company’s filing, the PIC, which manages around £50 billion on assets and has around 400,000 policyholders in the UK, would almost double the size of Athora. They will also place the photo under full ownership of Athora, a fast-growing pan-European insurance company backed by Apollo.
Apollo acts as what is known as a “sub-advisor” who manages some of Atla’s assets. This means that you may be working hard to manage the assets of your PIC customers.
The sale of PICs is like a major windfall for owners, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Bureau and US credit Investor HPS Investment Management. Earlier this week, HPS completed a $12 billion sale to BlackRock.
Since CVC first invested in 2017, the value of PIC has been about tripled. Luxembourg-based investment vehicle Reinet first invested in PIC in 2012, buying a 43% stake for £400 million, increasing its investment over time.
PIC has rapidly expanded under Reinet and CVC ownership, taking over the corporate pension fund liabilities and assets that support them. In 2023, it acquired £6.5 billion in liability from the general insurance company RSA.
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Athora has been studying the PIC acquisition for years, and insurance companies have previously attracted interest from other US private capital Giants, including Carlisle and KKR.
In recent years, Apollo has been an active UK investor and has purchased companies including the Restaurant Group, which owns Wagamama Food Chain. Last month, they pledged to lend £4.5 billion to fund the development of a nuclear power plant in Somerset, UK.
In 2022, Athens, another Apollo Insurance subsidiary, purchased more than $1 billion in assets from the UK pension fund during a crisis caused by the UK’s disastrous “mini” budget.
