Nippon Life has agreed to invest an additional commitment of $1bn in Resolution Life, a global life and annuity insurance consolidation business.
The news comes after Resolution Life and asset manager Blackstone announced their strategic partnership last year.
Nippon Life has been the largest investor in Resolution Life since 2019. It has supported its growth through eight transactions to a company with $80bn+ of reserves and three million policies under management across three international platforms.
Having invested $650m so far, this additional $1bn commitment from Nippon Life is expected to bring their cumulative investment to $1.65bn, according to the announcement.
Sir Clive Cowdery, Founder and Executive Chairman of Resolution Life said: “I am honoured to have the continued partnership of Nippon Life, an institution I admire and respect. There is a strong foundation of shared values, clarity of vision and breadth of capabilities across our organisations.”
Additionally, Nippon Life believes that the strategic partnership between Resolution Life and Blackstone will accelerate Resolution’s growth and development of.
It will also solidify Resolution Life’s position as a leader in the multi-trillion-dollar global life and annuity consolidation market by combining its global liability management platforms and Blackstone’s insurance asset management capabilities.
Under this partnership, Blackstone has become Resolution Life’s investment manager for certain key areas, including directly originated assets across the private credit, real estate and asset-based-finance markets.
The company believes the addition of investment and direct origination capabilities from Blackstone serves as a new competitive advantage for Resolution Life and enhances its ability to serve direct insurance partners in the marketplace.
Blackstone will manage an initial target of up to $25bn of Resolution Life’s existing private assets in the first year of the partnership, which is expected to increase to over $60bn over the next six years.
Gilles Dellaert, Global Head of Blackstone Insurance Solutions, said: “We thank Nippon Life – a leader in global life insurance – for their partnership as we work with Clive and his team to help drive the continued growth of Resolution Life.
“We believe Blackstone’s private credit and asset origination capabilities can help deliver increased value to investors and greater financial security to policyholders in the years ahead.”
According to the announcement, Resolution Life and Blackstone plan to raise $3bn of new equity capital for Resolution Life – including this additional $1bn investment from Nippon Life and a $500m strategic investment from Blackstone – which is expected to bring the company’s overall equity capital base to c.$8 billion.
Nippon Life’s additional investment is subject to regulatory approvals and anticipated to be made in the second half of 2023.
