Liberty Mutual Agency Plans Raise Approx $1.2B for Initial Public Offering

MarketWatch reported that Liberty Mutual Agency Corp. announced on Monday that it plans to offer 64.3 million shares at an estimated price range of $18-$20 a share in a bid to raise about $1.2 billion in its upcoming initial public offering.

Published on September 13, 2010

Liberty Mutual Agency plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol LMAC. Citi and BofA Merrill Lynch are underwriting the deal.

Parent company Liberty Mutual in May said that a stock market listing for the unit would boost its options to raise financing for growth. Following the offering, the parent will have about 98% of voting rights and 82% of the subsidiary’s equity.

“We intend to use the net proceeds to us, before expenses, of this offering to repay a portion of indebtedness that we owe or will owe to Liberty Mutual,” the unit said today in the filing.

Liberty Mutual Agency posted net income of $1 billion last year, according to the filing. Revenue was $10.9 billion, about one-third of the parent company’s total. The insurance carrier is the second-largest writer of property/casualty insurance distributed through independent agencies in the U.S., according to the filing.