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RNS Number : 6685P  Pension Insurance Corporation PLC  03 July 2025

ATHORA TO ACQUIRE

PENSION INSURANCE CORPORATION GROUP

 

London, 3 July 2025 - Pension Insurance Corporation Group Limited ("PICG"),
ultimate parent company of Pension Insurance Corporation plc ("PIC"), the
specialist insurer of UK defined benefit pension schemes, today announces that
Athora Holding Limited ("Athora") has agreed to acquire PICG for approximately
£5.7 billion. Athora is a leading pan-European savings and retirement
services group with €76 billion of assets under management and
administration, on behalf of 2.8 million policyholders.

 

The transaction means that for the first time in its 20-year history, PIC will
be held by a single strategic owner. PIC will become the UK insurance business
of Athora and continue operating under the PIC (and penguin) brand. Athora has
existing insurance businesses in the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Germany.
Athora is backed by permanent capital owners, including a strategic minority
investment by Apollo Global Management and Athene Holding Limited, and
long-term institutional investors such as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu
Dhabi Investment Authority ("ADIA").

 

The transaction creates a total Group with assets of over €130 billion,
backing the pensions of more than three million savers and retirees across
Europe. PIC will be 45% of Athora's total assets under management and
administration, and will be the largest and fastest growing business in the
Group.

 

PIC has a portfolio of £50.9 billion backing the pensions of 400,000 people.
It has £30 billion invested in the UK. To date it has invested £13.8 billion
in UK housing and infrastructure, which help provide the secure,
inflation-linked cashflows which match its pension liabilities over future
decades. PIC has so far paid more than £16 billion in pensions, with a 99%
customer satisfaction rating.

 

The acquisition reinforces PIC's strategy of providing very high customer
service levels and increases its ability to invest in UK housing and
infrastructure as Athora supports PIC through the next phase of its growth.
This will allow PIC to provide its best pricing across a larger number of
pension risk transfer deals.

 

PICG's current shareholders are Reinet Fund S.C.A., F.I.S. ("Reinet") which
holds 49.5% of the issued shares, a wholly owned subsidiary of ADIA, with
18.4% of the issued shares, funds managed by CVC Capital Partners ("CVC"),
with 17.4%, and funds managed by HPS Investment Partners with 10.2%, as well
as employees and other shareholders, who hold c.4% of the issued shares. The
transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in
early 2026.

 

Tracy Blackwell, CEO of PIC, said: "PIC has had an amazing growth story over
the past two decades and is now one of Britain's preeminent pension
businesses. This success has been based on a simple purpose, which is to pay
the pensions of our current and future policyholders. Athora's investment is
validation of what we have always believed: that PIC's reputation, strategy,
fortress balance sheet, purpose, and most importantly our people combine to
make this a unique business in a huge and growing market.

 

"With Athora backing us through our next phase of growth as their UK insurance
business, we will be able to provide more options to the trustees of defined
benefit pension schemes and invest more in UK housing and infrastructure. The
pension risk transfer market is vital to the wellbeing of millions of UK
pensioners and the allocation of tens of billions of pounds of investment into
the UK's economy. This acquisition and the potential for growth that it
represents is the strongest possible recognition of the value and importance
of the pension risk transfer market, the sector that PIC helped to create and
continues to lead.

 

"Finally, I want to thank our exiting shareholders who have been absolutely
brilliant in getting us to this point. I very much look to the next chapter in
PIC's story."

 

Mike Wells, CEO of Athora, said: "We are delighted to have agreed this
transaction. We have followed PIC's progress for several years and been
consistently impressed by the very high-quality business the PIC team has
built. As our UK subsidiary, PIC will be the largest business within the
Athora Group and we intend to invest in the business and its people to support
that growth in the UK pension risk transfer market. We have great confidence
in the long-term strengths of the UK: its retirement market, regulatory and
policy framework, and economic prospects."

 

Dillie Malherbe, Director: Reinet Investments Manager, said: "We have been
invested in PICG since 2012, and have helped oversee a 900% increase in the
size of the business since then, by size of financial investments. What has
consistently impressed me about PIC is that, despite that amazing growth
trajectory, it has maintained a relentless focus on outcomes for its
policyholders. I want to thank Tracy, our fellow shareholders, and everyone at
PIC for all their efforts over the past 13 years."

 

Hamad Shahwan Aldhaheri, Executive Director of the Private Equities Department
at ADIA, said: "As a shareholder in PICG since 2018, our investment supported
the growth of the company as it strengthened its position as one of the
leading players in the UK pension risk transfer market. Following this
transaction, we will maintain exposure to the company via our existing
shareholding in Athora, and believe that PIC has strong prospects for the
future. We wish the company continued success as part of Athora."

Peter Rutland, Managing Partner at CVC, said: "We are pleased to have utilised
the longer duration capital of CVC's Strategic Opportunities platform to
partner with the team at PIC over the past eight years, during which time the
company has scaled substantially and firmly established itself as a leading
player in the UK pension insurance market. We wish the company every continued
success under Athora's ownership."

 

- ends -

 

Notes to Editors:

 

1)   The Pension Insurance Corporation Group (the "Group") includes PICG,
the group holding company; PIC, the group regulated insurer; and Pension
Services Corporation Limited, the group service company

2)   PIC was founded in 2006, with five employees. Today the company has
more than 600 employees

3)   PIC's first pension risk transfer deal was with the Swan Hill Pension
Scheme in 2008, covering £65 million of pension liabilities. PIC has now
completed more than 300 pension risk transfer deals with pension schemes,
including RSA (£6.2 billion), Cadbury (£500 million), Rentokil (£1.5
billion), BHS (£800 million), TotalEnergies (£2.8 billion), Next (£510
million), and De Beers (£870 million)

4)   PIC signed £8.1 billion of new business in 2024

 

For further information please contact:

 

PIC
            Jeremy Apfel, Managing Director, Corporate Affairs

 
                        +44 207 105 2140 /
apfel@pensioncorporation.com (mailto:apfel@pensioncorporation.com)

 

Apella for PIC                       Anthony Silverman /
James Kirkup

+44 7818 036 579 / +44 7815 706 601

pic@apellaadvisors.com (mailto:pic@apellaadvisors.com)

 

Athora
Ben Adams, Director, Communications

 
            + 44 (0) 7552 161270 /| ben.adams@athora.com
(mailto:ben.adams@athora.com)

 

Brunswick for Athora          Nick Cosgrove / Diana Vaughton

 
+44 (0) 20 7404 5959 / athora@brunswickgroup.com
(mailto:athora@brunswickgroup.com)

 

About PIC

The purpose of PIC is to pay the pensions of its current and future
policyholders. PIC provides secure retirement incomes through comprehensive
risk management and excellence in asset and liability management, as well as
exceptional customer service. At year-end 2024, PIC had insured 400,000
pension scheme members and had a portfolio of £50.9 billion, accumulated
through the provision of tailored pension insurance buyouts and buy-ins to the
trustees and sponsors of UK defined benefit pension schemes. PIC has made
total pension payments of £16.2 billion to its policyholders and has invested
£13.8 billion in UK private investments, including housing and
infrastructure, creating considerable social value. Clients include FTSE 100
companies, multinationals and the public sector. PIC is authorised by the
Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct
Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority (FRN 454345). For further
information please visit www.pensioncorporation.com
(http://www.pensioncorporation.com)

 

About Athora

Athora is a leading European savings and retirement services group. We
concentrate on the large and attractive traditional life and pensions market,
with an ambition to become a leading provider of guaranteed savings and
pensions products in Europe. We serve the needs of individual and corporate
customers who continue to demand products offering safety of returns, and also
provide innovative M&A and risk transfer solutions to other insurers
seeking to enhance their capital position or enact strategic change. Athora's
principal subsidiaries are Athora Netherlands N.V. (Amsterdam, Netherlands),
Athora Belgium S.A. (Brussels, Belgium), Athora Lebensversicherung AG
(Wiesbaden, Germany), Athora Italia S.p.A (Genoa and Milan, Italy) and Athora
Life Re Ltd. (Bermuda). At 31 December 2024, Athora had AuMA of €76.0
billion, c.1,460 employees and approx. 2.8 million customers.

For more information, please visit: www.athora.com (http://www.athora.com)

 

About ADIA

Established in 1976, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority ("ADIA") is a
globally-diversified investment institution that prudently invests funds on
behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi through a strategy focused on long-term
value creation. For more information: https://www.adia.ae

 

About Reinet

Reinet is a specialised investment fund incorporated in the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg and regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur
Financier ("CSSF"). The investment objective of Reinet Fund is to achieve
long-term capital growth. Reinet Fund's strategy is to work with experienced
partners to invest in unique opportunities focusing on value creation for
investors. For further information please visit www.reinet.com
(http://www.reinet.com)

 

About CVC

CVC is a leading global private markets manager with a network of 30 office
locations throughout EMEA, the Americas, and Asia, with approximately €202
billion of assets under management. CVC has seven complementary strategies
across private equity, secondaries, credit and infrastructure, for which CVC
funds have secured commitments of over €260 billion from some of the world's
leading pension funds and other institutional investors. Funds managed or
advised by CVC's private equity strategy are invested in approximately 140
companies worldwide, which have combined annual sales of over €168 billion
and employ over 600,000 people. For further information about CVC please
visit: https://www.cvc.com/
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About HPS Investment Partners
HPS Investment Partners, LLC is a leading global, credit-focused alternative
investment firm that seeks to provide creative capital solutions and generate
attractive risk-adjusted returns for our clients. We manage various strategies
across the capital structure, including privately negotiated senior debt;
privately negotiated junior capital solutions in debt, preferred and equity
formats; liquid credit including syndicated leveraged loans, collateralized
loan obligations and high yield bonds; asset-based finance and real estate.
The scale and breadth of our platform offers the flexibility to invest in
companies large and small, through standard or customized solutions. At our
core, we share a common thread of intellectual rigor and discipline that
enables us to create value for our clients, who have entrusted us with
approximately $157 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2025.
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