Primerica Inc, the insurance business that Sanford “Sandy” Weill used to build Citigroup Inc, raised about US$320 million selling shares above the forecast price range in its initial public offering (IPO).
Primerica, the Duluth, Georgia-based distributor of consumer-finance products from term-life insurance to mutual funds, sold about 21.36 million shares at US$15 each, its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bloomberg data showed.
The IPO raised 27 percent more than the company sought when it offered 18 million shares at US$12 to US$14.
All proceeds will go to New York-based Citigroup, which served as the lead underwriter for the sale.
The seven previous US IPOs since March 15 have all priced within or above their forecast range as the S&P 500 extended a rebound from this year’s low on Feb. 8 to 11 percent. The first 14 deals since the start of the year had been cut by 24 percent on average, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Primerica, which has 100,000 representatives selling financial services to households with US$30,000 to US$100,000 in annual income, earned US$495 million last year, an almost threefold increase from a year earlier.
Net income rebounded after declining 72 percent in 2008, when Primerica wrote down some of its goodwill, or the amount paid above the net asset value in an acquisition.
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