Athene Holding Ltd., a leading provider of retirement services products, announced nearly $1 billion of combined capital deployment through a block reinsurance transaction with Lincoln Financial Group and a new share repurchase authorization. Through its Bermuda-based reinsurance subsidiary Athene Life Re Ltd. (ALRe), the company will reinsure $9.6 billion in annuities for Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. Athene has deployed about $700 million of capital in aggregate to back that transaction. “Following the flow reinsurance treaty announced last year, we are pleased to deepen our partnership with Lincoln Financial Group through this block reinsurance transaction on business that is well understood by Athene,” said Jim Belardi, CEO of Athene. ALRe has completed reinsurance transactions with 23 third-party entities since its inception in 2009. Athene also announced that its board of directors has approved a new authorization for the repurchase of up to $250 million of the company’s outstanding common stock. Athene Holding is the parent company of Athene USA in West Des Moines.