Athene Holding Ltd. (“Athene”) (NYSE: ATH), a leading retirement services company, announced it has reached approximately $6.0 billion in total pension risk transfer (PRT) transactions for 2019, which includes approximately $800 million from a recently completed funded reinsurance transaction with a leading U.K. insurance company.

Under the terms of Athene’s inaugural transaction in the U.K. market, which closed December 19, 2019, the Company will reinsure a block of pension benefit liabilities through its wholly owned subsidiary Athene Life Re International Ltd. In a few short years,

Athene has become a leader in the PRT industry, managing pension payments for more than 168,000 annuitants. Since 2017, Athene has closed 16 pension risk transfer transactions totaling nearly $11 billion.

“We are excited about our progress within the PRT business during the last few years,” said Bill Wheeler, President of Athene.

“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, noted, “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.”

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