MetLife IPO
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. (NYSE: MET)
Opening price: $14.25
Closed at $15 on April 5,
its first day of trading |
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. made its Wall Street debut April 5, raising $2.9 billion in its initial public offering (IPO).
The New York-based life insurance
company, which trades under the symbol MET, sold 202 million shares to
the general public and issued 493 million shares to its policyholders.
It also sold 73 million shares to two institutional investors, Credit
Suisse First Boston and Banco Santander Central Hispano. The lead
underwriters of the stock, Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman,
Sachs & Co. have an option to purchase an additional 30.3 million
shares.
The IPO completes MetLife's demutualization,
which is the process of converting from a mutual company owned by
policyholders to a public company owned by stockholders.
In
March filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, MetLife
changed the estimated share price from $14 and $24 a share to $14.25 a
share and also reduced the number of shares it planned to sell to the
public and issue to policyholders. Analysts blamed the move on the poor
reception insurance stocks have received on Wall Street recently. |
