Utmost Group Agrees To Buy Lombard International Assurance

Tom Burroughes

5 July 2024

has agreed to buy Lombard International Assurance Holdings Sarl – covering the latter’s European business. As part of the deal, Utmost Group is paying £200 million ($216 million), financed via borrowing.

The business is being bought from funds run by US-listed Blackstone Group.

Lombard is a player in what is called private placement life insurance (PPLI) a wealth management solutions channel that this news service has covered for more than a decade (see this article back in 2011.) Lombard, which describes itself as a “European leader of Luxembourg unit-linked life insurance,” offers cross-border wealth, estate, and succession planning for affluent, HNW and UHNW individuals.

Under the terms of the deal, will become a part of Utmost International, the international life assurance business of Utmost Group.

The purchase adds £43 billion of assets under administration and more than 20,000 policies to Utmost International. On a combined basis at the 2023 year-end, Utmost International would have had £100 billion of assets under administration, more than 210,000 policies, and would have written £6.4 billion of new business, it said in a statement.

Lombard International, which also has an office in Philadelphia, will continue to operate from Luxembourg with its existing suite of products. These will be distributed under the Utmost brand by a single combined global salesforce in parallel with Utmost’s existing products.

On a proforma basis, had the transaction completed on 31 December 2023, Utmost Group would have had a Group Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR) Coverage Ratio of 173 per cent, and a group leverage ratio of 29 per cent, within its 20 to 30 per cent target range.

Utmost Group said it is buying the business through a £200 million bank loan, with the remainder being covered by existing cash reserves.

Subject to regulatory approvals, the acquisition is expected to complete by the end of 2024.