Apollo’s Athene nears $1.5bn ACRA insurance-linked fund commitments

Athene Holding Ltd., the life and retirement reinsurance firm that is majority owned by Apollo, has now taken the capital commitments raised for its new Athene Co-Invest Reinsurance Affiliate (ACRA) vehicle to nearly $1.5 billion.

Athene has been steadily raising third-party capital commitments for the Athene Co-Invest Reinsurance Affiliate (ACRA) vehicle this year.

The structure, which will operate as a kind of investment fund, will enable investors to participate alongside the insurer in private deals, thus providing sidecar like capacity to support the kind of large reinsurance transactions that Athene tends to enter into.

For private equity and alternative investment specialist Apollo Global Management, raising funds for this third-party capital backed insurance-linked fund strategy will enable it to make the most of the appetite of investors to access returns from the insurance and reinsurance market.

With Athene Co-Invest Reinsurance Affiliate (ACRA), the target has been a capital raise of $4 billion for the strategy, to enable third-party investors to participate in private deals alongside Apollo’s insurance and reinsurance company Athene.

So the investors will have the chance to access insurance-linked returns from Athene’s deal-flow, across the large transactions and flow reinsurance it tends to enter into

Athene said back in May that its capital raise for ACRA was progressing well, reaching $1 billion of capital commitments secured and ready to deploy as and when deal-flow allows.

Now, in its latest set of results, Athene said that through July its unfunded capital commitments for ACRA are nearly at $1.5 billion, suggesting investor interest continues in abundance and the firm is well on its way to having sufficient capital to support any major transactions that come along.

Athene said that “significant additional commitments are expected to close over the coming months” which will help to build the investment pot in ACRA ready for deployment into any transaction co-invest opportunities that come along.

Athene also recently priced a $750 million issuance of preferred shares, the proceeds of which will partially fund its own deal commitments to the Athene Co-Invest Reinsurance Affiliate (ACRA) vehicle.