Just one large deal is in the IPO waters this week. Bowhead Specialty Holdings (BOW Proposed) is set to price its $100 million IPO on Wednesday night, May 22, 2024. The profitable specialty property and casualty insurance company is offering only 6.67 million shares at a price range of $14.00 to $16.00 to raise $100.0 million – if priced at the $15.00 mid-point. Bowhead’s market cap is about $460.05 million, assuming mid-point pricing. The IPO was launched last week.
Bowhead’s stock is expected to start trading Thursday, May 23, on the New York Stock Exchange.
J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods are the joint book-runners.
Bowhead’s deal is the first large specialty P&C insurance IPO – with proceeds of at least $100 million – since November 2023, when Hamilton Insurance Group, Ltd. (HG) went public.
From Construction Sites to Hospitals
Bowhead Specialty Holdings, based in New York, provides liability insurance for the construction, distribution, heavy manufacturing, real estate and hospitality business segments; professional liability insurance for financial institutions and nonprofits, and healthcare liability insurance for hospitals, senior care providers, managed care organizations and miscellaneous medical facilities.
Bowhead relies on its relationship with American Family Mutual Insurance Company, also known as AmFam, to write business on an admitted basis in all 50 states and Washington D.C., and on a non-admitted basis in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, according to the prospectus.
Taking the Long View
Bowhead was founded in 2020 during the pandemic, the prospectus says.
Founder and CEO Stephen Sills, an insurance industry executive with about 40 years of experience, wrote about the significance of Bowhead’s name in his founder’s letter, which is included in the prospectus:
“Bowhead whales are the longest living mammals on earth. Able to live upwards of 200 years, most bowhead whales swimming today have been around for every hard and soft insurance market that any human can remember.
“We are about three-and-a-half years into the creation of an underwriting organization that is being built for the long-term like our namesake.”
Bowhead is profitable, according to financial statements in the prospectus. The company reported net income of $25.05 million on revenue of $283.4 million for the year that ended Dec. 31, 2023.
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