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To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (135657)	12/13/2001 2:48:37 AM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164687

Vic, I like the PRU IPO. If you don't believe me, look how well Bostons John Hancock has done, or Metlife since their IPO's. >December 12, 2001 NEWARK, N.J. – For the first time in 86 years, the general public – and not just policyholders – will be able to get a piece of the rock. Prudential Insurance Co. of America, long the nation's largest life insurer, is to make its initial public offering of stock on Thursday, ending its history as a mutual company owned by policyholders and becoming one of the nation's most widely held stocks. The price is expected to be at the lower end of $25 to $30 a share, and could raise about $3 billion, analysts said. That would make it the third-largest IPO this year, behind Kraft Foods Inc. at $8.7 billion and the $3.6 billion raised by Agere Systems Inc., a spinoff of Lucent Technologies Inc. The stock is expected to begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PRU. It is one of eight companies with IPOs this week. The offering comes as insurance industry profits fell 42 percent in the first six months of the year, noted Martin Weiss, chairman of Weiss Ratings Inc., which follows insurance. Also, companies that write policies protecting property were hit hard by the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, having to pay claims estimated at $40 billion to $70 billion. "This might not be a favorable time for buying insurance companies, whether it be an IPO or a previously traded stock," Weiss said. Prudential plans to distribute 454.6 million shares to its 11 million policyholders and sell 110 million shares to the public. Next week, its name will change to Prudential Financial Inc., signifying its position as among the world's largest financial services institutions. It had more than $606 billion in assets under management as of June 30. Prudential policyholders in August overwhelmingly approved demutualization, which the company said would allow it to compete with an insurance industry increasingly filled with consolidating companies. The demutualization, first announced in 1998, was approved by the state Department of Banking and Insurance in October.