Phillips Edison & Company (PECO) is one of the nation’s largest owners and operators of grocery-anchored neighborhood shopping centers. The company started with the purchase of a single shopping center in Virginia in the early 1990s, and in the more than 30 years since, its portfolio has expanded to include 303 shopping centers comprising 34 million square feet across 31 states.
Supporting PECO’s impressive growth trajectory has included effective management of the company’s risk and insurance needs. When PNC’s Captive Advisory team began meetings, the PECO team already had in place a captive insurance program, a form of self-insurance in which a company creates its own, fully owned insurance subsidiary to insure against risk. While PECO was not necessarily looking to make a change, they learned through conversations with PNC that the bank was able to offer comprehensive, customized solutions that could optimize their captive’s investment program and enhance the overall captive program.
“What PNC’s captive insurance practice brings to the table is insurance sector specialists, an enterprise financial modeling team, and robust investment solutions focused on asset liability modeling for captives, as well as strategic balance sheet considerations when our captive clients look to increase retentions, introduce new risk lines, consider dividends, and much more,” said Dylan Feringa, Director of PNC Insurance & Specialized Industries Asset Management. “When we began talking with PECO, we asked the team to provide actuarial data and other key financials reports so that we could do an asset liability study of the captive, review their investment program, and see if we could identify any optimizations or rebalancing. Through the exercise, we identified opportunities to offer a more nimble and customized investment solution that, in our view, better aligned with the captive’s needs compared to their prior approach.”
In addition to the customized captive solution itself, PNC’s established industry specialty played an important role in PECO’s decision to transition to PNC. “Not only does our team hold a keen understanding of the intricacies of captive insurance companies, but we also provide long-term investment solutions that can support the captive’s growth and evolve with their captive’s operations,” Feringa said. “We are one of the only banks that has a dedicated captive insurance asset management team offering the comprehensive asset liability modeling, through our dedicated actuarial team, and tailored insurance investment solutions.
PNC has also been able to solve for additional business needs for PECO, including serving as the admin agent and lead left role in a billion dollar credit facility. PNC Capital Markets has also served as a bookrunner on each of PECO’s public bond issuances.
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PNC can work with you to develop strategies to help you manage issues related to market volatility and commercial real estate. For more information, reach out to your PNC Relationship Manager, or contact us.
