Athene Holding Business Summary

Athene Holding Ltd. operates as a leading retirement services company utilizing a spread-based business model, where revenue is primarily generated by earning a higher yield on its invested asset portfolio than the interest credited to its policyholder liabilities. The company’s operations are divided into four primary segments: Retail Annuities, which includes fixed, fixed-indexed, and registered index-linked products; Reinsurance, specializing in flow and block transactions for global life and annuity carriers; Funding Agreements, including the issuance of funding agreement-backed notes (FABN); and Pension Group Annuities, focused on the pension risk transfer (PRT) market. Athene competes directly with major financial institutions such as Allianz Life, MassMutual, Corebridge Financial, and MetLife. As of 2026, the company maintains a dominant market position, consistently ranking as the top provider of U.S. retail annuities and a premier institutional partner for capital-efficient retirement solutions. Founded in 2009 by Jim Belardi, Frank Gillis, Michael Starkey, and Partha Raut, Athene was established to capitalize on the market void left by traditional insurers following the 2008 financial crisis. The leadership team is currently led by Chief Executive Officer Grant Kvalheim, a former Co-President of Barclays Capital who joined Athene in 2011, and Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer Jim Belardi, who previously served as President of SunAmerica Life and CIO of AIG Retirement Services. Louis-Jacques (LJ) Tanguy, formerly the Chief Accounting Officer at Apollo Global Management, serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Athene is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO), and its board of directors features notable figures including Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, lead independent director Marc Beilinson, and former NFL star Lynn Swann.