CC Capital & Westaim partner on new integrated insurance and asset management platform

A new integrated insurance and asset management platform has been created through the strategic combination of investment company Westaim, global institutional asset manager Arena, and Ceres Life, a cloud-native, highly scalable annuity platform that has been incubated by CC Capital.

CC Capital is to invest USD $250 million in Westaim at CAD $4.75 per share, bringing the total investable capital base to approximately USD $700 million.

This investment and expertise aims to transform Westaim into an integrated insurance and asset management platform.

Westaim will have a growing and diversified credit manager and an advantaged, tech-enabled insurance carrier, which is expected to provide competitively priced fixed income and multi-year guarantee annuity products to policyholders.

This is also predicted to drive strong and sustainable value creation for Westaim shareholders.
For Arena, this transaction is expected to provide a long-dated insurance assets and better position for it to increase its third-party assets under management (AUM), creating a path to a potential USD $10 billion of AUM with just the existing equity capital base.

Dan Zwirn, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Arena, said, “We believe this transaction will enable Arena to leverage its existing capabilities to thoughtfully scale our platform through access to stable insurance assets from Ceres Life and the additional long-term support and resources of the CC Capital team.

“We have been working with partners in the insurance industry for years and look forward to capitalising on our expertise to source high-quality, long-duration assets to generate stable returns for Ceres Life’s policyholders.”

Ceres Life will continue to advance its cutting-edge technology platform, investing in the enhancement of distribution channels and service offerings, a commitment that aims to provide customers with compelling annuity products.

“As part of a combined platform, these businesses are expected to generate a powerful value creation flywheel, driving continued growth and stability of both the insurance and asset management businesses,” a spokesperson stated.

Led by Deanna Mulligan, former CEO and Chair of Guardian Life Insurance, Ceres Life will launch with access to considerable organic distribution flow through a unique distribution partnership.

This is anticipated to serve as a significant catalyst for accelerated growth at Ceres Life, delivering more assets to Arena. Consequently, this will facilitate the expansion and enhancement of the business’s capabilities, enabling it to cater to a broader range of potential policyholders.

“With these additional capabilities, Ceres Life is expected to be positioned to leverage the long-standing insurance relationships across CC Capital’s and Ceres Life’s management teams’ networks to opportunistically pursue reinsurance transactions to further accelerate the platform’s growth,” the spokesperson added.

Chinh Chu, Founder and Senior Managing Director of CC Capital, said: “This is a unique opportunity to create an integrated insurance and asset management platform. Ceres Life will be competitively advantaged by Deanna Mulligan’s leadership and experience, its advanced tech platform and a sizable, committed capital base.

“With this foundation, Ceres Life is positioned to scale rapidly and improve how the industry serves policyholders, generating stable insurance assets that will support Arena’s strong growth. We are confident that this transaction will create significant long-term value for Ceres Life policyholders and Westaim shareholders.”

Cameron MacDonald, CEO of Westaim, commented: “We are proud to provide our shareholders with the chance to participate in this unique strategic combination and join us on our significant value creation journey. We are transforming Westaim into a competitively advantaged, integrated insurance and asset management platform, with the potential to rapidly increase our AUM, and the network and talent to further accelerate our growth and success.

He added: “We are thrilled to partner with Chinh and his team and with Deanna, who collectively bring demonstrated expertise in guiding the growth of world-class insurance and asset management businesses, and who will help enable us to unlock the tremendous potential of this unique platform.”

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