Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners Plc is emerging as the frontrunner to form a UK pension partnership with Standard Life Plc, according to a Bloomberg report, citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”

CVC is forming a consortium for the potential deal with Standard Life, the report said, adding that Standard Life is aiming to announce a partner by the end of the first half of the year.

CVC and Standard Life declined to comment.

Bloomberg said insurers such as Standard Life and major private capital firms have been increasingly looking to join forces to grab a bigger slice of the UK’s roughly £1 trillion risk-transfer market, where insurers take over liabilities from corporate retirement plans.

By teaming up with other investors, Standard Life could free up more capital and write larger risk transfers, the report said.