Symetra sets IPO shares at $18 to $20
Symetra Financial increased the expected value of its initial public offering by 21 percent to as much as $908.5 million.
Proceeds from the sale of 45.4 million shares, which will be priced at $18 to $20 each, will go to shareholders who sell rather than Symetra itself, the Bellevue insurer said Monday in a regulatory filing.
The sale, including an overallotment portion, represents about half the outstanding stock, giving the company a market value of as much as $1.9 billion.
Symetra was formed from the life-insurance unit that Safeco sold to a group led by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and White Mountains Insurance Group in 2004. They paid $1.41 billion.
Berkshire and Hanover, N.H.-based White Mountains each owned a 26 percent stake as of Sept. 30. This will fall to 15 percent each after the sale, the filing shows.
Symetra said profit climbed 9.6 percent to $159.5 million last year on premium revenue of $525.7 million. The company had total assets of $19.9 billion as of March and employs more than 1,200 people.
The company expects its shares to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SYA, it said in the filing. Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs Group and Lehman Brothers Holdings are managing the offering.