CDPQ and Ontario Teachers' partner with industry veteran Anurag Chandra to launch new insurance platform

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Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec

Oct 23, 2019, 09:02 ET

New platform focuses on P&C and life insurer acquisitions and demutualizations

NEW YORK, MONTRÉAL and TORONTO, Oct. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Constellation Insurance Holdings ("Constellation"), founded by Anurag Chandra, former CEO of Prosperity Life Insurance Group ("Prosperity"), announced today that it has partnered with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec ("CDPQ") and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan ("Ontario Teachers'") and raised US$500 million in initial capital from them as founding investors. CDPQ and Ontario Teachers' are two of North America's largest institutional investors and together manage over CA$500 billion in net assets as of June 30, 2019.

"Constellation plans to invest in stock and mutual insurers based in North America that are seeking growth capital, stronger ratings, scale efficiencies and equity incentives while maintaining their independent management structure, brand identity, operations and entrepreneurial culture," said Anurag Chandra, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Constellation. "Constellation's target market and value proposition are differentiated versus other insurance platforms that focus on either asset accumulation, legacy block reinsurance or have shorter term investment horizons, which incentivize substantial expense reductions and limit investments in organic new business growth."

"We believe this new partnership, which allies a unique combination of expertise to a flexible investment horizon, will provide a source of competitive advantage for Constellation" said Stephane Etroy, Executive Vice-President and Head of Private Equity at CDPQ. "We look forward to working with insurers' management teams to support their existing operations and to identify new avenues for growth."

"We are delighted to partner alongside CDPQ with Anurag Chandra, who has a distinctive and successful track record in the insurance sector including acquisitions, demutualizations, turnarounds and rehabilitations. As CEO of Prosperity, he built an attractive, high growth insurance platform that generated exceptional investor returns and favorable outcomes for all key stakeholders," said Jane Rowe, Executive Managing Director, Equities, at Ontario Teachers'. "We expect this partnership with Constellation and CDPQ to create significant value for our stakeholders."

ABOUT CAISSE DE DÉPÔT ET PLACEMENT DU QUÉBEC
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at June 30, 2019, it held CA$326.7 billion in net assets. As one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers, CDPQ invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. For more information, visit cdpq.com, follow us on Twitter @LaCDPQ or consult our Facebook or LinkedIn pages.

ABOUT ONTARIO TEACHERS' PENSION PLAN
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers') is Canada's largest single-profession pension plan, with $201.4 billion in net assets at June 30, 2019. It holds a diverse global portfolio of assets, approximately 80% of which is managed in-house, and has earned an annual total-fund net return of 9.7% since the plan's founding in 1990 (all figures as at Dec. 31, 2018 unless noted). Ontario Teachers' is an independent organization headquartered in Toronto. Its Asia-Pacific region office is located in Hong Kong and in Europe, Middle East & Africa region office is in London. The defined-benefit plan, which is fully funded, invests and administers the pensions of the province of Ontario's 327,000 active and retired teachers. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on Twitter @OtppInfo.