Banking, finance, and taxes

Athene Holding Files for IPO

Chris Lange

Published: October 26, 2016 10:15 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 1:54 am

Athene Holding has filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). The company did not release any pricing information about the offering, but the sheer numbers of underwriters suggests the offering will be huge. The company intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ATH.

The underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, BMO Capital Markets, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, BNP Paribas, BTIG, Evercore ISI, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, UBS Investment Bank, Apollo Global Securities, Dowling & Partners, Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Lazard, Raymond James, Rothschild, Sandler O’Neil and Williams Capital Group.

This leading retirement services company issues, reinsures and acquires retirement savings products designed for the increasing number of individuals and institutions seeking to fund retirement needs. It generates attractive financial results for policyholders and shareholders by combining the two core competencies of (1) sourcing long-term, generally illiquid liabilities and (2) investing in a high-quality investment portfolio, which takes advantage of the illiquid nature of its liabilities.

The company’s steady and significant base of earnings generates capital that it opportunistically invests across its business to source attractively priced liabilities and capitalize on opportunities. Athene’s differentiated investment strategy benefits from its strategic relationship with Apollo Global Management and its indirect subsidiary, Athene Asset Management (AAM).

AAM provides a full suite of services for the investment portfolio, including direct investment management, asset allocation, mergers and acquisition asset diligence, and certain operational support services, including investment compliance, tax, legal and risk management support. Athene’s relationship with Apollo and AAM also provides it with access to Apollo’s investment professionals across the world, as well as Apollo’s global asset management infrastructure that, as of June 30, 2016, supported more than $186 billion of assets under management across a broad array of asset classes.

As of the end of June, the company had grown to $68.9 billion in investments, including related parties, $69.9 billion in invested assets and $84.3 billion of total assets.

In the filing the company said:

Our organic channels have provided deposits of $4.0 billion and $1.8 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively, and $3.9 billion, $2.9 billion and $1.5 billion for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Withdrawals on our deferred annuities were $2.0 billion and $2.2 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively, and $4.4 billion, $4.4 billion and $2.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Athene intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and general corporate purposes.