Pension Insurance Corporation

As the leading provider of bulk annuities to UK corporate pension schemes, PIC has an investment portfolio of £51bn, backing the pensions of more than 400,000 people. The company has so far paid more than £16bn in pensions, with a 99% customer-satisfaction rating.

CVC StratOps initially invested in PIC in 2017 and subsequently increased its investment with followon commitments in 2018 and 2020, the latter to support a £750 million primary capital raise to support growth.

The original investment thesis centred on backing a leading provider of pension risk transfer solutions to scale in the £1.8tn UK market, robust downside protection underpinned by substantial asset backing and highly visible future cash flows, and an unlevered minority position alongside Reinet (49% shareholder) and other Institutional investors. During the investment period, CVC worked in close partnership with management and alongside the other Institutional investors, to support a number of value creation initiatives including augmenting the management team, evolving the strategic positioning and capital allocation framework from raising capital for growth to being able to self-fund growth and pay regular dividends, as well as supporting new business origination.

Since 2017, PIC has established itself as one of the UK’s leading pension insurance providers, and achieved significant growth, more than doubling its financial investment assets (from £23bn to £51bn) and more than tripling its number of policyholders (from 130,000 to over 400,000). This strong performance, combined with a favourable long-term outlook for the UK pension risk-transfer market, enabled CVC to agree an attractive exit to a well-capitalised strategic buyer.