Agam Capital to form life and retirement reinsurance JV with Värde Partners

New Jersey-based insurer Agam Capital is partnering with Värde Partners, the alternative investment company, to pursue the acquisition, reinsurance and management of life and retirement businesses globally.

Värde and Agam will form a joint venture that will combine Värde’s investment management expertise with Agam’s proprietary insurance platform. The JV will price and manage complex insurance products with embedded market and actuarial risks, globally.

It will serve as a turnkey solution for financial modelling and enterprise risk management to provide comprehensive economic solutions to life insurance companies.

Värde Partners will invest $500 million in complex life insurance, annuity, and reinsurance assets supported by the JV, as part of its strategy to broaden its investing in targeted sub-sectors of the financial services industry.

Elena Lieskovska, partner and head of European financial services at Värde Partners, said historically low interest rates and fundamental regulatory and accounting changes have created a huge opportunity across the $23 trillion life insurance industry.

“Life insurance companies are increasingly seeking risk mitigation solutions for legacy blocks of liabilities with multi-dimensional risks,” said Lieskovska. “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.”

Agam’s co-founders, Avi Katz and Chak Raghunathan said there has never been a greater need for multi-dimensional solutions to the complex changes facing the life insurance industry. “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,” they said.