JAB enters UK with Utmost Life and Pensions deal, adds £5B in assets
What's the deal? JAB Insurance has completed its acquisition of Utmost Life and Pensions, a UK platform with more than £5bn in assets and nearly 300,000 policyholders, from Utmost GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The business will be renamed JAB Pensions. Terms were not disclosed.
Why now? The purchase marks JAB Insurance's entry into the UK insurance market and its first foothold in the country. It follows four transactions closed over the past 18 months, building a platform that now serves more than 1.5 million policyholders globally.
What's the endgame? JAB Insurance now operates across the US, Bermuda, and the UK, with roughly $30bn in invested assets. JAB Pensions will focus on the UK Bulk Purchase Annuity (BPA) market and in-house servicing, with Andrew Stoker staying on as chief executive officer.
What it means for the seller: For Utmost Group, the sale sharpens its focus on wealth solutions and helps repay debt tied to its Lombard International acquisition. In 2025, Utmost reported £9.7bn of inflows, up 43% on the prior year, and completed the integration and rebrand of Lombard International.
Anant Bhalla, executive chairman of JAB Insurance, said the deal lets it "provide greater choice for pension risk solutions in the UK."
The signal: JAB buys into a competitive market where scale matters. BPA volumes fell about 20% to £38.2bn in 2025, even as smaller-scheme deals hit a record 308 and new entrants wrote £3.5bn in premiums. The deal adds an established platform rather than signalling a broader surge in deal volume.
Read more: finance.yahoo.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
