时事资讯:Verisk将进行美国年度规模最大IPO

【英文原文】

Verisk Sets Biggest IPO Of The Year

In two weeks, insurance-risk specialist Verisk Analytics Inc. plans what will be the largest initial public offering of stock in the U.S. in more than a year.

The Jersey City, N.J., company plans to raise as much as $1.79 billion. That is more than twice the $750 million it targeted when it registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August 2008 and is the latest sign of the recovery in the market for new issues.

It will be the biggest U.S. IPO since credit-card giant Visa Inc. raised $19.7 billion in March 2008 and the first U.S. IPO of more than $1 billion since American Water Works Co. raised $1.36 billion in April 2008.

The U.S. IPO pickup still lags behind that of Asia, where there already has been six huge deals this year, including a $7.3 billion offering by China State Construction Engineering Corp. in July on the Shanghai exchange and a $5.1 billion deal from Metallurgical Corp. of China Ltd. last week on the Shanghai and Hong Kong, according to data from Dealogic.

All of the more than 85 million Verisk shares being sold are from its current owners, a group of big insurers ranging from Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. to American International Group Inc. The expected price range is $19 to $21 a share.

Verisk is slated to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol VRSK in the week of Oct. 5; its offering is being managed by Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

The 38-year-old Verisk is the largest aggregator of actuarial and underwriting data related to U.S. property and casualty insurance risks; its statistical models detect fraud and quantify losses.