This does not fill me with surprise or excitement. It shows abandonment of pensions to complete the job of feeding the maws of American “vulture” financiers.
The story is laid out by Alexandra Heal and Emma Dunkley and it should not make anyone in the UK very happy.
Partnership deals would save KKR from the full regulatory burden of owning a European insurance company and would allow it to focus on sourcing deals, one of the people said.
Leave discussions with the PRA to the locals
Athora doubled in size after its £5.7bn purchase last year of UK retirement savings group Pension Insurance Corporation, which had £50bn in assets.
Get big quick by swallowing the entrails of UK pension funds
Brookfield’s insurance arm also announced a £2.4bn acquisition last year of Just Group, another group specialising in pension risk transfers, or buyouts of pension policies.
I bumped into one of 200 people “at risk” at Just who told me that the upper tier of management has already been replaced by Brookfield.
For Brookfield and Athora read Global Atlantic.
KKR bought a majority stake in US insurer Global Atlantic in 2021 and later took full ownership.
Some might say that KKR are coming a little late to the party. Blackstone have already done the deal with L&G, Standard are tying up with CVC (being too small for KKR apparently). Whoever is left in the UK knows they’re a target as KKR circle like vultures. They know the name of KKR’s Global Atlantic
But it’s not just life insurers that should worry. What about the superfunds that want to consolidate small DB plans and run them on? What about larger pensions that fear they may do what Rolls Royce has done (rather than do a Stagecoach or convince their sponsor of the virtue of the surplus). What of the PPF? What will the PPF do? Wait until things get bad again as they surely will one day?
I liked a reference I saw to Vanstone and Blackguard.
Hello Henry
The vultures circle etc
I left preparing this comment until today until I had read others comments but I can see only the one above, presumably regarding the FT article itself (not yours). However my general observation of this week’s blogs are that several (as I read them) are written as alerts.
To declare my interest (as a punter): I have an annuity with Just and was alarmed when I read, earlier this year, that they had been taken-over by (USA) Brookfield. As we see from your blog, it is unsurprising that Brookfield have quickly replaced Just senior management with their own (US). As reported, Brookfield are part of…who are also part of…etc. As the saying goes ‘wheels within wheels’ and, added to that is their presence in the non-revealing territories of the Channel islands and the Caribbean. As your blog rightly warns, those UK pension firms remaining cannot be sure of what will happen to them and/or subsequently, their UK pensioners.
Perhaps (as a punter) I might suggest this to your alerts. Reportedly a number of possibly interested USA organisations are currently full of cash gained from the USA regressive monetary policy e.g. quantative easing, which transferred wealth from the earners to the asset owners. Hopefully, in another such emergency, a fairer system will be organised. We have also recently seen in UK that the US frequently uses tariffs as weapons against those Countries not meeting their wishes e.g. the UK’s expected taxes on (USA) IT conglomerates. Which US industry had the largest donors to the President’s latest campaign…? Thus, what does that imply for a reliable security of the UK pension funds, risks etc if, say, such US organisations are unhappy with the UK Government for any reason?
Perhaps we should look to the associated UK national security situation. Possibly the French think that it’s twenty years too late in coming, yet it was also reported this week that Ministers have intervened in a flurry of foreign takeovers of UK defence firms. That is: such a success could be a detriment to our national safety. The (Cabinet Office) Investment Security Unit (leading this) was established under of the National Security & Investment Act 2021. I suggest that UK citizens pensions should also be included under national security otherwise, with similar risks as alerted in your blog, savers may well subscribe scrupulously, only for it all to be scooped by a US conglomerate that contributes directly to its President’s campaigns.
Doomsayer, naysayer etc…perhaps? Yet if it happens once, it’s too late for the pensioners concerned.
Kind regards,
Tim Simpson