Chesnara plc is a specialist consolidator of life insurance and pension portfolios, operating primarily across the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The company's core business model revolves around acquiring closed books of life and savings policies—often non-core portfolios divested by larger financial institutions—and managing them efficiently to generate predictable cash flows and surplus capital. In addition to its run-off portfolio management, Chesnara writes profitable new open-book business through its subsidiaries, Movestic in Sweden and Scildon in the Netherlands.
The company operates through several key segments: the UK segment (including Countrywide Assured and the recently acquired Chesnara Life, formerly HSBC Life UK), which manages life insurance, endowments, and linked pension business; Movestic, which offers unit-linked pensions and savings products in Sweden; the Waard Group, representing closed Dutch life and general insurance businesses; and Scildon, an open Dutch life insurance business distributing protection and pension contracts via brokers. Chesnara's revenue is primarily driven by surplus capital released from regulated insurance funds, management fees, investment margins, and the capture of acquisition discounts. By maintaining a lean operating model and outsourcing core administrative functions in the UK, Chesnara sustains high solvency margins and a strong track record of dividend growth for its shareholders.
