Athene to acquire Foundation Home Loans

Retirement solutions provider Athene announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Foundation Home Loans (“FHL”), a specialist UK mortgage lender from funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group. As of June 2021, FHL had a £3 billion portfolio of specialist buy-to-let and owner-occupied mortgages on its balance sheet. The closing of the acquisition remains subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions, including consent by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The investment in FHL will be managed by the team at Apollo, Athene’s strategic asset management partner.

“This transaction continues our longstanding strategy of working with Apollo to identify and invest in attractive businesses which add direct origination asset sourcing capabilities to our alpha-generating investment portfolio. We believe our investment will help FHL achieve its full potential, while being a complementary addition to our expanding asset sourcing capabilities.” – Jim Belardi, Chairman and CEO of Athene.

“We are delighted to partner with Athene and Apollo for the next phase of growth in the UK specialist lending market. Their expertise and funding capacity will greatly enhance our position in the market.” – Hans Geberbauer, CEO of Foundation Home Loans.

“Apollo has developed deep expertise in the residential loan market and we are excited to partner with FHL and its management team to help scale FHL’s platform, further positioning it as a leading originator within the UK buy-to-let market. We expect that FHL will contribute high-quality assets to Athene’s residential mortgage portfolio of loans and structured securities, which  exceeded $13 billion of net invested assets as of March 31, 2021 and exhibits a strong yield profile that is indicative of the alpha generation the asset class can offer.” – Kevin Crowe, Partner of Apollo. Christopher Hojlo, Partner of Apollo.