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European PE investment in financial services hit a new record last year, as competitive pressures across banking, asset management and insurance accelerated consolidation opportunities to fund digital transformation and modernization initiatives.
According to PitchBook’s 2025 European PE First Look, PE firms invested €69.6 billion (about $81 billion) in European financial services last year, a 35% increase year on year and the second-fastest-growing sector after healthcare.
However, the rise was driven primarily by large-cap deals, with deal count falling to 543 transactions, from 572 in 2024.
The UK dominated activity, attracting around €45 billion of PE investment in financial services—by far the largest share across Europe.
Much of the capital flowed into insurance, pensions and wealth platforms, where predictable cash flows and regulatory-driven consolidation have made assets more attractive to sponsors, according to advisers.
The largest transaction of the year was the Apollo-backed £5.7 billion (about $7.7 billion) acquisition of Pension Insurance Corporation by London-based savings and retirement services provider Athora.
Following PIC’s acquisition, Rolls-Royce also agreed to transfer its UK defined-benefit pension scheme to PIC in a £4.3 billion transaction, covering the retirement liabilities of around 36,000 members, as companies increasingly look to remove pension risk from their balance sheets.
Read more: PE exits in Europe’s financial services hit record $36.3B
Permira’s £2.3 billion take-private of London-listed JTC in November underscored the continued appetite of sponsors for scaled, cash-generative financial services platforms.
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