BOSTON & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aptia (or the “Company”), a newly-formed company created by the purchase of the U.S. health and benefits administration and U.K. pension administration businesses of Mercer, a business of Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), today launched with support from Bain Capital Insurance, the dedicated insurance investing unit of Bain Capital. Aptia combines the scale and reach of these two leading businesses into a new Company that will continue to provide strong service, support, and benefits plan management to more than five million lives across more than 1,100 clients.
Aptia will manage a U.S. employee benefits administration platform serving employees and retirees, and one of the largest defined benefit pension administration platforms in the U.K. The Company will be led by a highly qualified management team that includes Bala Viswanathan, CEO, and Dominic Burke, Chairman. Having worked together at both Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) and Marsh McLennan, Bala and Dominic will bring both continuity and a strong track record of growth, operational delivery, and client fulfillment to Aptia.
- Bala Viswanathan has been the COO of Mercer since Marsh McLennan’s acquisition of JLT in 2019. Previously, he was the CEO of JLT’s global Employee Benefits business where he successfully reoriented the business to achieve significant organic growth. He has extensive experience in financial services and a strong track record in delivering efficiency through client focus, process redesign, and digitalization.
- Dominic Burke was the Group CEO of JLT from 2005 to 2019, and then served as a Vice Chairman of Marsh McLennan. During his leadership tenure at JLT, he drove the business from an enterprise value of £450 million to £5 billion through a relentless focus on growth, service excellence, and organizational culture.
"Aptia will focus exclusively on employee benefits administration and specialist pension administration delivered by experts and enabled by technology. In partnership with Bain Capital, we will seek to create a genuinely differentiated and highly responsive client experience that will resonate strongly in the marketplace,” said Bala Viswanathan, CEO, Aptia.
“Digital enablement is underpenetrated in these sectors. We see a clear opportunity to empower our people by continuously investing in the leading technologies they need to efficiently deliver specialized client solutions. We will also prioritize our people from day one by establishing a supportive learning culture that offers the foundation for growth and development both in and outside of the workplace,” added Dominic Burke, Chairman, Aptia.
“We believe that investing in people, technology, and operations can build on the existing foundations to grow Aptia into a nimble, innovative, and reliable platform delivering high-quality servicing and fulfillment capability to clients at scale,” said Matt Cannan, a Partner at Bain Capital Insurance. “Bala and Dominic have strong track records of creating successful, client-centric cultures. We are excited to partner with a highly talented group of people under their leadership and look forward to building a differentiated international administration business.”
Bain Capital Insurance’s investment in Aptia builds upon the firm’s experience building insurance businesses in the U.S. and Europe in partnership with high-quality management teams. Since inception, the team has launched Keystone Agency Partners, a platform that acquires and grows U.S. property and casualty insurance agencies; Enhance Health, a technology-enabled health insurance brokerage and care navigation platform serving the individual and family medical plan market; partnered with JDC Group and Canada Life Irish Holding Co. to launch Summitas Gruppe, an innovative insurance brokerage platform; and provided a strategic investment to London based Beat Capital Partners, a long-duration investor and partner in specialty managing general agencies.
The transaction is expected to close in late 2023, subject to customary approvals and other closing conditions.
Kirkland & Ellis, Deloitte LLP, and EY-Parthenon advised Bain Capital Insurance on the transaction.
Hogan Lovells advised Marsh McLennan on the transaction.
About Aptia
Aptia will be a trusted provider of employee benefits and pensions administration services, with offices in the U.S. and U.K. supported by shared services in India and Portugal. We will manage programs covering over five million people and serving more than 1,100 clients, catering to both B2B purchasers of the administration platform and B2C employees. Aptia will have the expertise to excel in managing employee benefits and pensions administration.
We will deliver efficient and reliable solutions that ensure the smooth management of pension plans and employee benefits programs. Our dedicated team of experts will combine in-depth knowledge with leading technology to simplify the administration process for clients in the U.K. and U.S. Aptia will be committed to delivering a next-generation client experience, through a responsive approach that improves administration processes and increases efficiencies for clients.
About Bain Capital Insurance
Bain Capital Insurance is the dedicated insurance investing business of Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm with over $165 billion under management across 22 offices on four continents. We seek to collaborate with leading insurance businesses and management teams to unlock value and drive innovation across the insurance industry, specializing in insurance investing strategies that span the entire value chain and growth spectrum – from catalyzing transformational change, creating new platforms, and stepping into capacity-driven dislocations, to partnering with industry participants to meet their long term strategic and investment return targets. Learn more at www.baincapital.com.