Phoenix Group Holdings plc (formerly Pearl Group plc) is a provider of

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

services based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History

The company was founded in 1857 as The Pearl Loan Company and operated from the Royal Oak

Public House A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

opposite the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

. It changed its name to The Pearl Assurance Company in 1914, when it moved to 252 High Holborn where it was based until moving its head office to

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

1989. In 1990, it was acquired by the Australian insurance group,

AMP #REDIRECT Amp {{Redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

, and in 2003, Pearl, NPI and London Life were demerged from AMP to become part of

Henderson Group Henderson Group plc was a global investment management company with its principal place of business in the City of London. It merged with Janus Capital Group in May 2017 to create Janus Henderson. History The Company was established in 1934 ...

. In 2005, the Pearl Group was bought from Henderson Group by Sun Capital Partners (a business in which

Hugh Osmond Hugh Edward Mark Osmond (born March 1962) is an entrepreneur and businessman and was the founder of Punch Taverns, one of the UK's largest chains of public houses. Early life Hugh Edward Mark Osmond was born in March 1962, the son of a doctor, a ...

is a leading partner) and

TDR Capital TDR Capital is a British private equity firm headquartered in London, England. History TDR Capital was co-founded in 2002 by Manjit Dale, Stephen Robertson, and Tudor Capital.

. It acquired Resolution Life (including its Phoenix Assurance operations) in 2008. In 2009, the business was acquired by the Liberty Acquisition Holdings (International) Company (a vehicle controlled by billionaire

Nicolas Berggruen Nicolas Berggruen (; born 10 August 1961) is a US-based billionaire investor and philanthropist. Born in Paris, France, he is a dual American and German citizen.Jeremy Kahn (October 25, 2011)''Bloomberg'' He is the founder and president of Berggru ...

), which subsequently renamed itself Pearl Group. In 2010, Pearl Group rebadged as Phoenix Group Holdings. In March 2014, the business sold

Ignis Asset Management Ignis Asset Management was an asset management company with head offices in Glasgow and London. In July 2014, Standard Life Investments (Holdings) Limited acquired Ignis, formerly Resolution Asset Management, for £390m. Ignis, which is the Lat ...

to Standard Life Investments, the asset management arm of

Standard Life Standard Life is a life assurance, pensions and long-terms savings company in the UK which is owned by Phoenix Group. History 1825–2010 The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825 and was reincorporated as a mutual assurance ...

. In 2018, Phoenix Group agreed to acquire Standard Life Assurance from Standard Life Aberdeen for £2.9 billion. As part of the transaction Standard Life Aberdeen retained a stake in the combined group. In 2020, Phoenix completed the acquisition of fellow closed book specialist ReAssure Group from Swiss Re. In 2021, it was announced that Phoenix had acquired the rights to the Standard Life brand and had undertaken additional steps to simplify the relationship with Standard Life Aberdeen that had developed since the acquisition of the Standard Life business three years previously.

Operations

Phoenix Group comprises a number of regulated life companies in the UK: * Phoenix Life, a closed life insurance business covering Phoenix Life and Phoenix Life Assurance (former Pearl Assurance) * Phoenix Wealth, the UK-based pensions and investments previously offered by AXA Wealth *

* ReAssure, covering ReAssure and ReAssure Life and also including Ark Life * SunLife plus other unregulated businesses: * Vebnet

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Financial services companies established in 1857 Insurance companies of the United Kingdom Financial services companies based in the City of London British companies established in 1857 1857 establishments in England Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies based in Peterborough

History

Operations

See also

References

External links