A little more than ten years after setting up in Bermuda with four employees, Athene Holding Ltd could soon be knocking on the door for inclusion in the S&P 500 index.Being listed among the largest 500 companies on stock exchanges in the US would make more investors and analysts sit up and take notice of the company.The Bermudian-based retirement services company more than doubled its profit last year to $2.136 billion.There was a significant boost in the fourth quarter with net income of $432 million, or $2.42 per share, compared to a loss of $104 million for the same period in 2018.The full year net income was up 103 per cent, from $1.083 billion. The company said the increase was primarily driven by favourable changes in the fair value of reinsurance assets reflecting a decrease in US Treasury rates, tightening credit spreads, and higher adjusted operating income.Athene reported its earnings yesterday, and Jim Belardi, chief executive officer, told The Royal Gazette: “Our earnings were very good for the fourth quarter, but I think the best is in front of us.“The more attention we get, the better for us. And getting in the S&P 500 would certainly be consistent with us getting more attention and analysis which is what we want. The more the asset managers know about us, the better for us.”There is an increased opportunity for Athene to feature in the S&P 500 as it concludes a “strategic transaction” with its partner Apollo Global Management. The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks. Among other things, it will eliminate Athene’s multi-class share structure, increase Apollo’s economic ownership of Athene and add about $1 billion of incremental excess capital for Athene.The company said the transaction will broaden its investor appeal and enhance eligibility for inclusion in a major S&P index, such as the S&P 500. Mr Belardi said getting on the S&P 500 would be huge. “At a minimum, all these index funds would have to be owners of our stock, which is great. And then you would have active managers in those index funds and they would get more focused on our fundamentals.“Our task is to get more people to look at our track record and operating history. The more managers that see that, will see we are way undervalued and the market is not fully appreciating our earnings power.”If Athene gained a place among the top 500 it would cap a remarkable story that started in 2009 when it was founded in Bermuda by Mr Belardi and Frank “Chip” Gillis. “We purposely wanted to headquarter the company in Bermuda. On day one we had four people in Bermuda, we have close to 90 people there now and growing. We are taking bigger office space as we speak,” Mr Belardi said.Athene began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2016. Its initial public offering raised $1.1 billion, making it the third largest IPO of the year.Its subsidiaries largely issue, reinsure and acquire retirement savings products and liabilities.Last year, Athene closed about $6 billion in total pension risk transfer transactions, including its first in the UK, where it reinsured a block of pension benefit liabilities through its subsidiary Athene Life Re International Ltd.The company is bullish on the pension risk transfer market in the UK.“Compared to the US, the UK pension risk transfer market is bigger and less competitive. It’s still competitive, but not as competitive as the US. That’s a good combination, it’s bigger and less competitive than the US,” Mr Belardi said.“We are still very active and bullish in the US pension risk transfer market, but we feel there’s a bigger opportunity in the UK, so we are happy to get our first deal done, and we would like to do more there.”Athene’s book value per share at the end of the year was $76.21, while adjusted book value was $54.02.Between December 2018 and yesterday it repurchased $927 million of its common stock. It has a remaining share repurchase authorisation total of $640 million.During a conference call with investors yesterday, Mr Belardi said: “Our undervalued stock is one of the best investments we can make. We expect to restart the activity tomorrow.”He said the company had marked its ten-year anniversary last year, with the past decade seeing it grow to become a public company with more than 1,300 employees, hundreds of thousands of customers, and managing $120 billion of net invested assets.Speaking to the Gazette he said Athene loved being in Bermuda and was spending time in philanthropic and educational efforts on the island. One of these is a scholarship programme at Bermuda College, announced in October, which provides free college education to ten students. It is hoped the programme will expand in coming years.“We love Bermuda. I think we have a fantastic relationship with the regulators, and I think we are one of the best corporate citizens in Bermuda. We are trying to make the island better for citizens and we are going to continue doing that,” Mr Belardi saidMr Gillis, executive chairman of the board of Athene Life Re Ltd, last year said Bermuda could lead the world in life insurance. When asked if he agreed, Mr Belardi said: “We may be the largest life insurer on the island now.“We have huge growth prospects. The best is in front of us. I’m more optimistic about our prospects going forward.“From zero to $120 billion in ten years. We’ll double our size in a fraction of the time it took us to get to $120 billion, without sacrificing returns.“Our business model is very developed, and we have a great combination between organic and inorganic [growth], and a great combination in partnership with Apollo.“We have no legacy issues, because we started after the financial crisis, and we have a lot of capital, probably more than any company to execute our business plan. We can act when prices are appropriately cheap.”He added: “It’s hard work. There is no substitute for hard work. We pay attention to detail. We think we have successfully pivoted to become a solutions provider, especially for the restructuring that is going on in the insurance industry“We are perfectly positioned to take advantage of appropriately priced businesses that other companies don’t want.”