MINNEAPOLIS & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Värde Partners and Agam Capital announced today an agreement to pursue the acquisition, reinsurance and management of life and retirement businesses globally.
The agreement calls for Värde Partners and Agam Capital to form a joint venture that will combine the investment management expertise of Värde Partners with the proprietary insurance solutions platform developed by Agam. The JV will have the capability to price and manage complex insurance products with embedded market and actuarial risks, on a global basis. It will serve as a turnkey solution for financial modelling and enterprise risk management to provide comprehensive economic solutions to life insurance companies.
In connection with the launch of the JV, Värde Partners is seeking initially to invest $500 million in complex life insurance, annuity, and reinsurance assets that will be supported by the JV. This is part of Värde’s intention to broaden its investing in targeted sub-sectors of the financial services industry, marking the expansion of its private equity strategy into insurance.
Elena Lieskovska, Partner and Head of European Financial Services at Värde Partners, said:
“Given the current landscape of historically low interest rates and fundamental regulatory and accounting changes, we believe the opportunity across the $23 trillion life insurance industry is huge. Life insurance companies are increasingly seeking risk mitigation solutions for legacy blocks of liabilities with multi-dimensional risks. This is particularly true for complex annuity products, such as those with high guarantees or exposure to certain market risks, which typically attract a higher capital charge. We are excited to expand Värde’s financial services footprint into insurance, and partner with Agam to provide alternative solutions to the industry.”
Agam’s Co-Founders, Avi Katz and Chak Raghunathan said:
“The need for multi-dimensional solutions to the complex changes facing the life insurance industry has never been greater. Against this backdrop, we believe the combination of Värde Partner’s core strengths in complex transactions together with Agam’s differentiated pALM platform will create a world-class insurance solutions provider. In particular, the Agam platform is designed to price, analyze and manage complex insurance products with embedded capital market risks and offers creative structures and solutions on a global basis.”
Agam’s highly scalable, proprietary technology platform applies machine learning, predictive data analytics and cloud computing to evaluate and assess complex insurance liabilities. Its innovative approach incorporates advanced analytical techniques, including integrating transaction modelling with actuarial cash flows.
About Värde Partners
Värde Partners is a $14 billion global alternative investment firm that employs a value-based approach to investing across a broad array of geographies, segments and asset types, including corporate and traded credit, real estate, mortgages, financial services, real assets and infrastructure. The firm sponsors and manages a family of private investment funds with a global investor base that includes foundations and endowments, pension plans, insurance companies, other institutional investors and private clients. Now in its third decade, Värde employs more than 300 people globally with regional headquarters in Minneapolis, London and Singapore.
About Agam Capital
Agam is a New Jersey-based insurance solutions provider, founded by Abraham Katz and Chak Raghunathan, senior executives from Apollo Global Management and Aflac Inc. While traditional insurance solutions have been aimed at enhancing asset yield to support a liability structure, Agam has focused its efforts on building technology for risk management with integrated analytics. Agam’s expertise is to develop solutions for complex cash flow streams through greater hedging optimization and meaningfully lower operating costs.
# # #