Global pensions and employee benefits provider Aptia Group has launched a “rare” all colleague share plan (ACSP).
Employees at the firm, which has operations across the UK, USA, India and Portugal, will be eligible for shares in the company irrespective of seniority, location or length of service, and will not need to invest their own money to take part.
The company and the ACSP are backed by private investment firm Bain Capital.
‘Incredibly rare’
Bala Viswanathan, founder and group chief executive at Aptia Group, said: “While share plans are not unheard of, they remain incredibly rare in private equity owned businesses. But we’re doing things differently, we believe we’re creating something special, building a new force in pensions and benefits administration and fundamental to that is putting our people front and centre – and rewarding them accordingly.”
The value of the ACSP will depend on Aptia’s performance in the market and the company said its performance “looks promising”.
The firm has a major pension portfolio in the UK and a health and benefits administration business that works with large employers in the US. Specialist administration is a fast-growing sector and currently sees annual growth across the market of between 6 percent and 8 percent a year.
Viswanathan continued: “Our focus on administration and our investment in people and technology means we have the potential to grow at an even faster rate than the market. We’re very fortunate also, to have a private equity backer in the form of Bain Capital which is not only funding our growth but also providing expertise and advice to help us continually improve and develop – and they’ve backed our ACSP from day one.”