Athene Holding Ltd. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Foundation Home Loans, a specialist U.K.-based mortgage lender, from funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC. As of June 2021, FHL had a £3 billion (about $4.14 billion) portfolio of specialist buy-to-let and owner-occupied mortgages on its balance sheet. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The investment in FHL will be managed by the team at Apollo Global Management, Athene’s strategic asset management partner. The deal with FHL, a leader in originating high-quality residential mortgage loans, is expected to provide Athene with attractive investment opportunities in high-quality yield assets. Bermuda-based Athene, through its subsidiaries that include Iowa-based Athene USA, is a retirement services company with total assets of $205.7 billion. Athene and Apollo in March announced plans to merge, a transaction expected to close in January 2022.