Athene Holding Ltd. has announced that it successfully closed approximately $6 billion in total pension risk transfer transactions for 2019, which includes the firm’s inaugural transaction in the UK market.
Approximately $800 million, or more than 13% of the total volume of pension risk transfer deals completed by Athene in 2019 came from a recently completed funded reinsurance transaction with a UK company.
The deal, which closed on December 19th, 2019 marks the company’s first in the UK marketplace, and sees Athene reinsure a block of pension benefit liabilities through its wholly owned subsidiary, Athene Life Re International Ltd.
Since 2017, the firm has closed 16 pension risk transfer transactions totalling almost $11 billion, and Athene now manages pension payments for more than 168,000 annuities.
Bill Wheeler, President of Athene, commented: “We are excited about our progress within the PRT business during the last few years. This year alone we have closed on more than twice the volume we closed on in all of 2018 – all with attractive targeted returns.
“As a leader in the U.S. pension risk transfer market, we are now pleased to bring our strength and expertise to offer solutions to companies in the U.K. pension market as a reinsurance partner to domestic insurers.”
Sean Brennan, EVP of Pension Risk Transfer and Flow Reinsurance at Athene, added: “Similar to the prospects we continue to see in the U.S., we anticipate the U.K. PRT market could also be an attractive long-term growth opportunity for Athene.
“Our differentiated investment, actuarial, risk-management, and operational capabilities, combined with our strong balance sheet, position us well to serve the £2.3 trillion1 (approximately $3 trillion USD) U.K. defined benefit marketplace.
“Our recent transaction represents Athene’s ability to provide a reinsurance risk transfer solution in a complex and evolving landscape.”
