American Equity Investment Life (AEL), a leading issuer of fixed index annuities through independent agents, banks and broker-dealers, announced that it would be acquired by Brookfield Reinsurance, in a transaction that values AEL at approximately $4.3 billion. AEL shareholders will receive a total of $55 per AEL share in cash and Brookfield stock.
Brookfield Reinsurance, a leading financial services company for the insurance industry, and its affiliates North End and Freestone currently hold approximately 20 percent of AEL’s outstanding common shares, and the parties have entered into a voting agreement with AEL to vote in favor of the merger transaction.
The S&C team advising AEL includes Rodge Cohen, Melissa Sawyer, Steve Kotran, Marion Leydier, Yev Markov, Julia Kim, Kevin Akrong, Kyle Hess, Shray Gupta and Nicole Jiang. Cathy Clarkin and John Savva are advising on capital markets matters. Marc Treviño, Heather Coleman, Rebecca Rabinowitz and Jisoo Park are advising on executive compensation matters. Mehdi Ansari, Grace Son and Julia Caffery are advising on intellectual property matters. Neal McKnight and Courtland Morrice are advising on financing matters. Jameson Lloyd, David Spitzer, HyunKyu Kim and Ellen Kim are advising on tax matters. Frederick Wertheim and Tracey Russell are advising on Investment Company Act matters. Eric Kadel and Manon Scales are advising on compliance matters. Matthew Brennan is advising on environmental matters. David Rein and Frank Orlich are advising on FINRA matters. Joe Matelis and Cooper Godfrey are advising on antitrust matters. Eric Queen and Bradley Smith are advising on HSR matters.