Aurigen Re Capital has completed its initial capitalisation by securing CAD500m of equity to support the start-up of the group’s life reinsurance business unit in Canada in the country’s l
Aurigen Re Capital has completed its initial capitalisation by securing CAD500m of equity to support the start-up of the group’s life reinsurance business unit in Canada in the country’s largest private equity fundraising in the financial services sector.
Capital commitments have been made notably by private equity funds managed by EdgeStone Capital Partners, Englefield Capital, Pine Brook Road Partners and Soros Strategic Partners.
Aurigen has been established to provide a new source of reinsurance capacity to life insurers in response to a growing need for diversification of counterparty risk, additional capacity and access to customised solutions. It will provide traditional life and health reinsurance through its wholly-owned operating subsidiaries Aurigen Reinsurance, which is based in Hamilton, Bermuda, and Toronto-based Aurigen Canada.
The president and chief executive of Aurigen is Alan Ryder, an experienced life reinsurance executive who was most recently president of General Electric’s Canadian life reinsurance business, Employers Reassurance Canada.
The senior management of Aurigen Canada consists of Ryder, chief financial officer Gregg Clifton, chief reinsurance operations officer Stephen Cooley and chief business development officer Yana Gagne, all of whom has extensive experience in the life and health reinsurance market.
‘We have observed a real market need for additional capacity and expert solutions resulting from the consolidation of the life reinsurance industry,’ Ryder says. ‘Aurigen is a direct response to that need, with an experienced and knowledgeable management team backed by a leading group of investors that have significant financial resources, global scope and a breadth of expertise within and outside of the reinsurance business.’
Scotia Capital acted as financial adviser to Aurigen and also arranged the provision of seed capital by Maple Financial, a private financial institution based in Canada with offices in North America and Europe.
EdgeStone Capital Partners is one of Canada’s leading private equity firms with more than CAD2.5bn of funds. Englefield Capital is a London-based firm with approximately EUR 1.8bn of committed funds to date that specialises in buyout and development capital.
Pine Brook Road Partners is a New York-based private equity firm established in 2006 to make business-building and growth capital investments, primarily in the financial services and energy sectors. Soros Strategic Partners is a private vehicle that makes long-term investments primarily for the benefit of George Soros and his family and focuses on capital-intensive start-ups, buyouts and growth equity transactions.