Reinsurance Group of America Incorporated Shareholders: Ownership Structure, Brands, and Acquisition History
Last updated: Oct-2026Ownership Structure
Ownership Analysis
Nobody can direct RGA. BlackRock is the biggest holder, and it reaches 8.39% only if one counts its trust bank alone; BlackRock Inc.'s full position of 6.50 million shares is close to 9.9% of the year end count of 65.46 million. We put the weight on that distinction because neither figure carries a board seat, and the filings we found for the large holders are Schedule 13G forms, the passive kind. Control left in 2008, when MetLife exited, and the board has answered to dispersed institutions ever since.The governance structure leans on independence. Eleven of 12 directors are independent, and the chair, Stephen O'Hearn, holds no executive role and has served since 2020. His 2025 pay was $225,000 in fees plus $285,046 in stock, a total of $511,546. Our arithmetic gives stock at 55.7% of that package, so a chair paid this way gains when RGA's price rises. We give credit to the split between chair and chief executive, which keeps one person from setting the agenda and grading it. Say on pay passed with 94% support in 2025, and the ten year average is 93.4%, so holders have not used the vote as a lever.We could not source the proxy's table of insider holdings, so we make no claim about what Tony Cheng or Axel André own. We doubt that insiders hold more than a small fraction of the shares, because institutions' long positions already add up to about 99% of the share total, by one aggregator's tally. Cheng's path tells more than his stake: a year as president preceded the chief executive title, and the Equitable treaty was signed in his second year in the top job. We side with boards that run a visible handover, and this one did.
Direct Owners
Institutional Shareholders
Shareholder Analysis
Aggregators disagree about who holds what, and the disagreement shows how dispersed the ownership is. Fintel lists Vanguard Group at 6,943,568 shares, and the two unit filings of 3,521,493 and 3,439,156 sum to 6,960,649, so the views agree to within 0.3%. As we count it, the two Vanguard units together hold roughly 10.6% of the shares, twice the 5.4% either filing shows alone. Fidelity looks smaller at 4.84 million shares for its research arm, yet FMR LLC in total holds 5,933,142, or 9.1% of the shares. We rank FMR above Harris on that basis, though not above BlackRock.Harris Associates, the Oakmark manager, is the one large holder that bets on price rather than an index. Its 4,261,078 shares sit at 6.5%, and Bill Nygren's funds carry about $996 million of RGA at current prices, so a 10% fall costs them close to $100 million. Harris raised its holding by 27.36% in the latest quarter Fintel tracked. We side with the idea that active managers are the price setters. Harris, WCM at 2.75 million shares and EARNEST at 2.32 million together hold about 9.3 million shares, 14% of the company.Cash returned to holders is modest against earnings. The quarterly dividend of $0.98 comes to $3.92 a year, a 1.56% yield at $251.14, and $256 million at 65.3 million shares. Second quarter repurchases of $50 million bought roughly 199,000 shares, about 0.3% of the count.We lean toward calling this a business that keeps capital for block deals: the $111 million returned in the quarter is 19% of the $586 million earned.Sentiment is constructive. Of 11 analysts, nine rate RGA a buy or strong buy, one a hold and one a sell, and the $267.11 average target is 6.3% above $251.31. Short interest is 1.5% of shares available to trade. Our estimate is roughly 1.20 times book value and 1.45 times book excluding unrealized gains and losses, a modest premium for 17.4% trailing adjusted operating return on equity.
Brands, Subsidiaries & Companies Owned
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| RGA Reinsurance Company | Subsidiary | Principal U.S. operating reinsurer rated A+ by A.M. Best and A1 by Moody's |
| RGA Life Reinsurance Company of Canada | Subsidiary | Canadian reinsurer behind RGA's Canadian business including the 2024 Manulife universal life coinsurance |
| RGA International Reinsurance Company dac | Subsidiary | Irish reinsurer listed in the 2025 10-K subsidiary exhibit and used for European and international business |
| RGA Americas Reinsurance Company Ltd. | Subsidiary | Bermuda reinsurer in the group's subsidiary exhibit |
| RGA Global Reinsurance Company Ltd. | Subsidiary | Bermuda reinsurer in the group's subsidiary exhibit |
| Aurora National Life Assurance Company | Subsidiary | Closed block life and annuity insurer bought from Swiss Re in April 2015 for $191.5M |
| Hodge Life Assurance Company Limited | Subsidiary | English annuity insurer with about 570M pounds of annuity liabilities agreed in February 2021 |
| Omnilife Insurance Company Limited | Subsidiary | English insurer listed among the group subsidiaries in the 2025 10-K |
Portfolio Analysis
The Traditional and Financial Solutions split for the three months to June 2026 shows how RGA now earns its money. Pretax adjusted operating income came to $761 million, which we derive by adding the reported segment figures: the U.S. unit $165 million Traditional and $154 million Financial Solutions, Canada $38 million and $18 million, EMEA $39 million and $133 million, Asia Pacific $129 million and $120 million, less a $35 million Corporate and Other loss. The Financial Solutions lines add to $425 million against $371 million for Traditional, so our arithmetic gives the larger share to Financial Solutions and the mortality-risk business is no longer the bigger earner.That sum reconciles to the reported $586 million after income tax through a 23.0% charge, matching the 23.1% rate disclosed. EMEA is the sharpest case: Financial Solutions produced $133 million there, 3.4 times the Traditional $39 million.Premiums depend on geography and on pension risk transfer. In 2025, net premiums fell 3.4% to $17.2 billion because pension risk transfer dropped from $2.9 billion to $300 million. We strip that out: 2024 premiums were about $17.8 billion, so the rest of the book rose from $14.9 billion to $16.9 billion, up 13.4%, which we count as healthy underlying growth. The U.S. and Latin American segment wrote $7.927 billion, Asia Pacific $3.335 billion and EMEA $2.258 billion.We give credit to Asia Pacific, where Traditional profit rose to $129 million from $104 million, up 24%, on new business growth. The average investment yield was 5.33% in the quarter against 5.31% a year earlier, and 4.99% for 2025 against 4.82%. Each 1 point of return on the roughly $11.35 billion of equity before bond price swings is worth about $114 million, or $1.74 a share. We would discount the 17.4% trailing return as a run rate, because the second quarter's claims were modestly favorable.
Market Share & Competitors
| Company | Market Share | Revenue | Key Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reinsurance Group of America Incorporated ★ | N/A | $23.70B FY2025 | Largest dedicated life and health reinsurer with $4.3T of life reinsurance in force |
| Swiss Re | N/A | $43.1B FY2025 insurance revenue | Global reinsurer whose Life and Health Re unit booked $16.5B of insurance revenue |
| Munich Re | N/A | EUR 60.4B FY2025 insurance revenue | Diversified group with a EUR 1.715B life and health reinsurance technical result |
| Hannover Re | N/A | EUR 26.8B FY2025 reinsurance revenue | Large European reinsurer with EUR 8.0B of life and health revenue |
| SCOR | N/A | EUR 15.4B FY2025 insurance revenue | French reinsurer with EUR 8.1B of life and health revenue |
Competitive Analysis
Among the global reinsurers that write life business, RGA is the only one that does little else. Swiss Re booked $16.5 billion of insurance revenue in Life and Health Re in 2025, close to RGA's $17.2 billion of net premiums, yet the Swiss unit earned $1.3 billion against RGA's $1.518 billion of adjusted operating income. Hannover Re's life and health revenue was EUR 8.0 billion with a EUR 903 million service result, and SCOR's was EUR 8.1 billion with EUR 450 million. Munich Re's life and health technical result was EUR 1.715 billion inside EUR 60.4 billion of group revenue. These are different measures, so we weigh them loosely, and we would discount any ranking built on them. Result over revenue is 8.8% for RGA, 7.9% for Swiss Re, 11.3% for Hannover and 5.6% for SCOR.Peers have shown where the risk sits and their filings show that experience updates arrive late. Swiss Re took a $0.65 billion hit from assumption changes on weak portfolios in Australia, Israel and South Korea, and RGA writes business in Australia and South Korea as well. SCOR's life and health service result swung from a EUR 348 million loss in 2024 to the EUR 450 million profit. We doubt that RGA's second quarter, with $586 million of operating income and claims only modestly favorable, is the level it will earn when experience turns against it.We note that group returns also differ. Hannover's 2025 return on equity was 21.4% and Swiss Re's 19.6%, both above RGA's 15.7% adjusted operating return, but those two include property catastrophe results that RGA does not have. We lean toward the narrower comparison, where RGA earns mid-teens returns from life and health alone. Scale supports it: the five largest clients supply roughly a fifth of gross premiums, a concentration that none of the European groups, with their wider books, would report at that level.
Acquisitions
| Company Acquired | Deal Value | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equitable individual life block | undisclosed | 2025 | Coinsurance of 75% of Equitable's in force individual life business covering $18B of general account and $14B of separate account reserves |
| Manulife universal life block | undisclosed | 2024 | CA$5.8B coinsurance of Canadian universal life policies closed April 1 2024 |
| Hodge Life Assurance Company | undisclosed | 2021 | English annuity insurer with about 570M pounds of liabilities bought through a 100% share purchase |
| Aurora National Life Assurance Company | $191.5M | 2015 | Closed block of payout annuities and interest sensitive life bought from Swiss Re Life and Health America |
| ING group life accident and health reinsurance | undisclosed | 2010 | U.S. and Canadian group reinsurance business of ReliaStar Life moved to Minneapolis |
Acquisitions Analysis
RGA grows by buying risk more often than by buying companies, so price disclosure is thin. The one priced purchase, Aurora National Life from Swiss Re on April 1, 2015, cost $191.5 million net of cash for $3.7 billion of assets and $3.5 billion of liabilities, and the filing records no goodwill. Our arithmetic gives book equity of about $200 million, so RGA paid close to book value for a closed block and booked no premium on top. The 2010 purchase of ING's group reinsurance unit, which brought about 90 staff to Minneapolis, and the 2021 Hodge Life Assurance deal for about 570 million pounds of policy liabilities were both announced without a price. We doubt that an outsider can score either from public numbers.Block treaties are measured in capital instead. RGA deployed $2.5 billion in 2025 and $1.7 billion in 2024. Of the 2025 total, $1.5 billion went to Equitable, so that one treaty absorbed 60% of the year's deployment. Management expects the block's adjusted operating income to grow from $70 million in 2025 to $200 million at maturity, a 13.3% return on $1.5 billion. That lands inside the 13% to 15% return on equity range that a data vendor reports as management's target, and it was reached without paying a purchase premium, which we weigh heavily. We side with the treaty's economics for that reason, and the Manulife coinsurance of April 2024 earns the same verdict, since it moved US$4.4 billion of reserves in a single closing. The risk is concentration. Equitable's $200 million at maturity would equal 13% of 2025 adjusted operating income of $1.518 billion. On 65.3 million shares it equals $3.06 a share, about 1.2% of the current price, so one counterparty already carries real weight in the earnings base. We rank Equitable first among the sources of future growth.
Acquisition Timeline
Merger & Spin-off History
Merger & Spin-off Analysis
Three events changed who owned RGA, and shareholders came out of each differently.The first was the May 6, 1993 initial public offering. General American Life kept 65% and sold the rest, so outside holders owned a minority of a company whose parent controlled the board. That was the arrangement until the second event: MetLife bought General American in 2000 for $1.2 billion and inherited the RGA stake. Public holders of RGA stock stayed a minority for another eight years under a new parent.The third was the 2008 split-off. MetLife offered its own shareholders RGA Class B shares in exchange for MetLife stock, at a final ratio of 1.2663 Class B shares per MetLife share. About 253 million MetLife shares were tendered, and MetLife accepted roughly 23.1 million of them, which we derive by dividing the 29,243,539 delivered Class B shares by 1.2663. The acceptance rate was near 9%, so the exchange was heavily oversubscribed, and we doubt MetLife had trouble filling it. Tendering holders were offered about $1.11 of RGA stock for each $1.00 of MetLife stock, so MetLife's own shareholders took the premium, not RGA's.The transaction ended the controlling holder and left RGA with no sponsor. Since 2008 we see changes in ownership coming from asset managers rather than corporate events. The Equitable treaty of 2025 is a reinsurance contract, not a merger, and it left the share count untouched. Our estimate is that existing RGA holders lost nothing in the split-off, since the company issued no new money and received none. We side with reading 2008 as the turning point, because the 2025 deal cost RGA no shares and no control.
Ownership History
Ownership History Analysis
General American Life set up a reinsurance division in 1973, and by 1993 it had grown to $114.7 billion of coverage in force. That year it became a public company, a step that gave RGA its own stock, though General American kept 65%.In the three decades after the listing, control changed once at the top and then dispersed. We rank the 2008 separation first, since it replaced a corporate parent with asset managers and left a board answerable to many holders instead of one. Since then the share count has stayed near 65 million, and the company has grown through treaties rather than equity issuance. We lean toward crediting that discipline for the steady per share results.The market has rewarded it. Market capitalization has risen 1,320% since December 1998, a compound rate of 10.02% a year by one data provider, and the equity gained 25.95% over the past year to $16.00 billion on September 9, 2026. Revenue of $23.698 billion in 2025 was 7.2% above 2024's $22.107 billion. Net income of $1.182 billion was 65% above the prior year's $717 million. Fortune's list ranked RGA 196th in 2025.Our estimate is that the company's balance sheet has outgrown its headcount, since about 4,300 employees look after $156.6 billion of assets, or $36 million per employee. We rank that ratio as evidence that RGA is a balance sheet business run by few people. We doubt that the next shift in ownership will come from a corporate parent. It would more likely come from the price of the shares, now at 1.2 times book value, which is where an acquirer or an activist would begin.
Ownership Explained
Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated is a Missouri corporation formed on December 31, 1992, and it runs its business from 16600 Swingley Ridge Road in Chesterfield, west of St. Louis. Its common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange as RGA. The 2025 annual report counted 65,563,173 shares outstanding on January 30, 2026, the proxy statement counted 65,509,234 on the March 23 record date, and the second quarter release cited 65.3 million. At the $251.14 price shown by a market data site, the market value of the stock was close to $16.4 billion, against a book value of $209.73 a share at June 30, 2026.Institutions own nearly all of the stock, and none of them controls it. The largest filings come from asset managers. BlackRock Institutional Trust Company held 5.50 million shares, or 8.39%, and Fidelity Management & Research held 4.84 million, or 7.39%, both as of December 31, 2025. Harris Associates reported 4,261,078 shares, or 6.5%, for the same date. Vanguard now files through two units: Vanguard Portfolio Management with 3,521,493 shares (5.37%) and Vanguard Capital Management with 3,439,156 (5.24%), both at March 31, 2026. WCM Investment Management held 2.75 million shares, or 4.19%.Tony Cheng, who is 52, has been chief executive since January 1, 2024. He was named president in January 2023 and joined the board that year. Stephen O'Hearn, an independent director, has chaired the board since 2020. Finance is led by Axel André. The proxy statement lists 12 directors, 11 of them independent.At the end of 2025 the company had about 4,300 employees and $156.6 billion of total assets. It reported revenue of $23.698 billion for the year and $4.3 trillion of life reinsurance in force. Results are reported in five segments: U.S. and Latin America, Canada, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and Corporate and Other. The first four each split into Traditional reinsurance and Financial Solutions, and the 10-K says non-affiliate stock was worth about $13.1 billion on June 30, 2025.
The July 31, 2025 treaty with Equitable Holdings is the contract that now shapes the balance sheet most. RGA Reinsurance Company took 75% of Equitable's in force individual life block on a pro rata basis, covering $18 billion of general account reserves and $14 billion of separate account reserves. Equitable keeps the policyholder relationships, and AllianceBernstein continues to manage about 70% of the general account assets involved. RGA needed $1.5 billion of capital for it and expected $70 million of adjusted operating income in 2025, rising to $200 million a year once the block matures.Client concentration comes next. The 10-K says the five largest clients paid about $3.9 billion, or 21% of gross premiums. A ceding company's own strategy can therefore move RGA's earnings, as when Manulife chose in 2024 to cede CA$5.8 billion of Canadian universal life reserves.Ratings gate the business RGA can write. A.M. Best rates RGA Reinsurance Company A+, Moody's rates it A1, and S&P gives several subsidiaries AA-, with an A senior debt rating at the parent. A.M. Best's long term issuer credit rating for the parent is a-. The holding company also has subordinated debentures listed on the exchange under RZB and RZC.Payouts to shareholders are limited by regulators in each country where a subsidiary is licensed. The 10-K says insurance supervision protects policyholders and direct insurers rather than shareholders, so dividends from subsidiaries to the parent depend on capital tests. In the second quarter of 2026 the parent returned $111 million, made up of $50 million of repurchases and $61 million of dividends, after raising the quarterly dividend 5.4% to $0.98 a share.Deployable capital was estimated at $3.4 billion at year end 2025. That sum is what management has available for further block transactions and for returning cash to owners of the 65 million shares.