EUROPE - Swiss investment fund Reinet is to invest as much as £400m (€500m) in UK-based Pension Corporation's pensions insurance business, subject to regulatory approval.

Bringing to a close protracted negotiations that began last year, Mark Weinberg, chairman at Pension Insurance Corporation, said his company would use the funds to expand in the UK pension insurance and risk transfer market.
 
Under the terms of the deal, Reinet - a wholly owned unit of Reinet Investments - has committed to invest up to £400m on the basis of a valuation of Pension Corporation's insurance business of £525m.

Of the total, £100m will be contributed at closing, while the remainder is expected to be drawn down as required over a period of as many as five years.

The Swiss company will have voting and governance rights "commensurate with its proposed investment".

Pension Corporation's UK insurance subsidiary, Pension Insurance Corporation, has approximately £5.5bn in assets and has insured almost 60,000 pension fund members.