08:00
Registration
08:50
Chair's opening remarks
Josh Adcock, Staff Writer, Insurance Asset Risk
09:00
The risks and opportunities for private debt investment
- Identifying the opportunities for direct lending in insurance portfolios
- How will the inflationary environment and interest rate movements impact borrowers and lenders?
- Structuring private debt strategies for optimal capital efficiency and balance sheet management
- Preparing for the impact of the Solvency II review, applicable in 2027
- Managing rising credit risks amid a shift toward sub-investment grade exposures
- Expanding regional diversification: opportunities and practical limitations for insurers
Moderator: Simeon Willis, Chief Investment Officer, XPS Investment
Michela Bariletti, Chief Credit Officer, Phoenix Group
Roman Hederer, Head of Portfolio Management, Legal & General
Stephen Marsh, Head of Investment Oversight, Lloyds of London
09:45
Private debt 2.0: Building a capital-efficient toolkit for insurers
As private debt evolves, insurers must move from broad allocation to targeted deployment. This Q&A session explores sector dispersion in pricing and illiquidity premia, the growing role of short-duration asset-based strategies, and how solvency and highly predictable cash flow requirements are influencing capital efficiency, structural design and portfolio construction.
Melissa Bockelmann, Head of Private Debt Investment Specialists, Aviva Investors
Munawer Shafi, Head of Structured & Private Corporate Debt, Aviva Investors
10:05
ESG considerations when investing in private markets
- How private market investments can support insurers' ESG and sustainability objectives
- Comparing private debt and private equity approaches to ESG integration and impact
- The state of ESG data: assessing quality, consistency and decision-usefulness and identifying gaps
- The evolution and alignment of ESG standards and taxonomies: are they a help or a hindrance?
- Opportunities for insurers to influence positive change through private markets, relative to public market investing
Moderator: Jegor Tokarevich, Co-CEO, RiskConcile Group
Cléo Fitzsimons, Head of Sustainability, Pension Insurance Corporation
Maximilian Kulhanek, Senior Private Equity Portfolio Manager, UNIQA
10:45
Coffee and networking
11:15
Asset-Based Finance (ABF) investment strategies for insurers
- Identifying the ABF investment strategies most relevant and effective for insurance portfolios
- Comparing ABF yields and risk profiles with public and private credit opportunities
- Optimising ABF allocations within existing solvency and accounting frameworks
- Innovation in structuring and risk transfer – tranching of prepayments and other embedded risks
Moderator: Bob Tyley, Head of Insurance Investment & ALM, Hymans Robertson
Aileen Mathieson, Group CIO, Aspen Group
Corrado Pistarino, Chief Investment Officer, Foresters Friendly Society
Neil Hepworth, Principal, AB CarVal
12:00
Deep dive: property investments
- Direct vs fund/co-investment approaches
- Restructuring underperforming/undervalued property funds
- Managing long-duration cash flows and liability matching
- Considerations and challenges when developing a green, or "brown-to-green" real estate portfolio
- Social housing and impact investing
- The future of office space and the role of data centres in property portfolios
- The impact of regulation, government policy and spending - what changes could help channel insurers' capital towards property investments?
Moderator: Ian Gleeson, Senior Advisor, JLL, Board Member, IPUT plc
Adam Alari, Investment Oversight Manager Real Assets, Royal London
Andrew Angeli, Global Head of Real Estate Research & Strategy, Zurich Insurance
Marieke van Kamp, Head of Private Markets, NN Group
12:45
Lunch
13:45
Structuring securitisations to meet insurers’ Matching Adjustment (MA) needs
- The trade-offs: moving from high-return, high-capital private assets to senior positions in tailored structures with lower yields but reduced capital charges and operational complexity
- Regulatory and operational considerations: are new MA applications required?
- Collaboration and co-investment: how can insurers partner with asset managers and other institutional investors?
- Perspectives on "manufactured" assets in insurers' private credit strategies
Moderator: Ben Grainger, Partner, Financial Services, Ernst & Young
Andrew Fong, Loan Investments Senior Manager, Scottish Widows
Clarence Er, Group Head of Credit Risk, Just Group
Prasun Mathur, Head of Private Assets, Aviva
14:30
Deep dive: infrastructure investments
- Transport infrastructure, energy and renewables, and digital infrastructure: what are the emerging trends, pricing challenges, and risk considerations?
- What factors can enable or impede access to deal flow and origination of attractive, high-quality assets?
- How do insurers decide on allocation and structure to optimise risk-adjusted returns?
- Infrastructure debt versus equity, public versus private capital, and PPPs
- Examples of infrastructure investments in developing economies and the associated risks, opportunities and challenges
- Looking ahead: what are the structural issues that require investments from private actors over the next 20 years? To what extent can private capital step in where public spending is constrained?
- housing
- grid update to ensure support for electrification and energy security
- infrastructure to support the AI revolution
- nuclear energy
Moderator: Carlos Montalvo Rebuelta, Partner, PwC
Alexander Gramann, Senior Investment Manager Renewable Energy & Infrastructure, Munich Re
Manuel Dusina, Head of Real Assets, Private Markets, Phoenix Group
Sarah Aird, Infrastructure Investment Professional, Swiss Re
15:15
Coffee and networking
15:45
Conference ends