Latest news with #risk transfer
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
UniCredit-Backed Alpha Bank Plans SRT on €1.2 Billion of Loans
Greece's Alpha Bank SA has started the process of selling a significant risk transfer transaction tied to a portfolio of corporate loans, according to people familiar with the matter. The size of the reference portfolio is about €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion), according to the people, who asked not to be named because the deal is private. UniCredit SpA, which recently increased its stake in the Athens-based bank to around 20%, is advising on the transaction, the people said.
Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Times
Legal & General eyes £42bn of pension risk transfer deals
António Simões, Legal & General's chief executive, is eyeing up £42 billion worth of pension risk transfer deals and said he was 'not concerned' by the threat posed by big new competitors to the sector, including Apollo Global Management and Brookfield. 'There's been a lot of chatter about competition, but I am not concerned. It's healthy. We are the market leader,' he said, adding that L&G was continuing to be disciplined on pricing. Simões was reporting consensus-beating core operating profits of £859 million for the six months to June, up 6 per cent, and expressed confidence in meeting targets for the full year. • Business live: FTSE 100 extends record run One of L&G's most profitable specialisms has been the taking over of the assets and liabilities of legacy pension funds, deals known as pension risk transfer or PRT, and landed £3.4 billion worth of deals in the half, up from £1.5 billion last time. Simões said that in the UK alone, L&G was actively pricing on or could see £42 billion worth of potential deals being done in the next 12 months, including nine of more than £1 billion each. He was unperturbed by the arrival of the private equity group Apollo Global Management, whose European insurance business Athora last month agreed a £5.7 billion deal to buy one of the UK's most active PRT players, Pension Insurance Corp. Canada's giant Brookfield has also entered the PRT market, last week making a £2.4 billion agreed cash offer for Just Group. Employers are keen to offload legacy defined benefit pension schemes, which have long since been closed to their existing employees and are seen by most as a costly distraction. L&G this year struck PRT deals with Deutsche Bank, Inchcape Motors, Sanofi and Honda UK. While the chancellor Rachel Reeves is introducing measures to try to encourage employers to 'run on' their DB schemes in the hope they will push into more productive assets, the insurance industry is confident of huge amounts of PRT business in the next five years. • L&G to hand £5bn back to shareholders after selling US life business Phoenix Group's Standard Life division today announced its biggest ever PRT deal, a £1.9 billion buy-in of the part of the DB scheme sponsored by the insurance broking giant Marsh McLennan, taking on pension promises to 6,500 people. Simões, a former Santander banker who took the top job at L&G in January 2024, said momentum in the business was building after signing an alliance with the Japanese insurer Meiji Yasuda in February and a deal with Blackstone last month to push deeper into private assets. L&G was on track to return £5 billion to shareholders over three years through buybacks and dividends, he said. The interim dividend was set at 6.12p, up 2 per cent, as expected. Many investors hold L&G as an income stock, attracted by the yield of around 8.4 per cent. Shares in L&G were marked down as some analysts expressed disappointment about the solvency ratio, a key measure of capital strength, which dropped to 217 per cent from 223 per cent. Simões said he was very comfortable with the number. L&G is one of Britain's biggest pensions and savings groups and includes an asset management arm responsible for £1.1 trillion of assets. Total assets under management dropped by 1 per cent in the period because of falling bond prices and a weaker dollar. L&G shares fell 2.3 per cent to 255.5p.
Bloomberg
28-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
SMBC Plans SRT Tied to $8 Billion of Loans Made to Private Funds
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. is sounding out investors for a significant risk transfer tied to a portfolio of loans to private market funds, according to people familiar with the matter. Bankers at SMBC are discussing a SRT linked to about $8 billion of subscription lines, a type of credit that is typically extended to private equity and other private market funds to help them manage liquidity, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
