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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StockDung who wrote (11156)	2/23/2003 7:04:31 PM
From: RockyBalboa	Respond to of 19428

Bermuda Insurer Is Solo in IPO Market Sunday February 23, 2:27 pm ET By Jake Keaveny NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a market where investors have no appetite for risk, just one company is willing to bet it can successfully debut its stock. Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based property and casualty insurer, hopes to sell as much as $259 million of shares in an initial public offering on Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT Endurance will carry as much momentum as an IPO candidate could hope for. Property and casualty premiums are rising; its backers, like Aon Corp. (NYSE:AOC - News) and Texas Pacific Group (News - Websites), have deep pockets; and the two Bermuda property and casualty insurers that went public before it have outpaced the market. But with the economy sputtering and war with Iraq looming, investors have been loath to invest in newly public companies. Just three IPOs raising $285 million have been sold this year, less than one-fifth of the proceeds raised during the same period last year. To sell the IPOs, investment banks were forced to delay the sales and reduce the offering price of two of them. Then, once investors made the gamble, the stock prices either fell or were flat in their market debuts. "In this market all bets are off," said Sal Morreale, who follows IPOs for Cantor Fitzgerald. "Investors aren't in any mood to make a commitment." The challenge for Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS - News) and Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE:MER - News), which are managing the Endurance IPO, will be to get investors to commit ahead of the sale. Investors' attitude has been to wait until the last minute to see if the market is up or down, said Morreale. If the investment banks fail to get enough orders by early next week, they may be forced to advise Endurance to drop its asking price of $25 to $27 per share or postpone the sale. BERMUDA Endurance is one of a string of Bermuda insurers created to take advantage of soaring premiums after the Sept. 11 attacks. Industry trackers say the idea was always to take them public. The company was created in December of 2001 after raising $1.2 billion from Aon, Zurich Financial Services Group, private equity funds Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and Texas Pacific Group, Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity and other investors. By the end of last year it had grown to $2.1 billion of assets and $1.2 billion in shareholders' equity. Endurance is hoping to ride on the coattails of competitor Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:MRH - News), an insurer part-owned by White Mountain Insurance Group (NYSE:WTM - News). Shares in Montpelier have risen by 31 percent since it raised $190 million in early October. Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:PTP - News), former reinsurance unit of St. Paul Cos. (NYSE:SPC - News), followed suit by raising $675 million later that month. Its shares have rise 3 percent since, compared with a 4 percent drop in the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average index. In its prospectus, Endurance says that a number of property and casualty insurers are getting out of the business because of losses from asbestos suits, poor performing investments, the Sept. 11 attacks, and years of over-competition. As the competition thins, premiums are rising. New insurers have managed to attract demand because they don't come loaded with liabilities like old asbestos claims, which have hampered the industry in general. VALUE At the expected price range, Endurance isn't offering investors much of a premium. At $25 per share, the low end of the range, Endurance shares would be valued at 9.4 times its expected earnings for 2003, according to a person who has tracked the sale. At $27, the value would be 10.2 times expected earnings. By comparison, Montpelier is trading at about 8.3 times 2003 earnings, while Platinum is trading at 11.2 times 2003 earnings. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., another Bermuda insurer, is valued at about 7.1 times 2003 earnings.