The IPO Buzz: Specialty P&C Insurer Bowhead Prices Upsized IPO at $17 – $1 Above Range

Bowhead Specialty Holdings (BOW) upsized its IPO at pricing to 7.53 million shares – up from 6.67 million shares in the prospectus – and priced the IPO at $17.00 – $1.00 above the top of its $14.00-to-$16.00 range – to raise $128.0 million on Wednesday night, May 22, 2024. Bowhead’s stock is expected to start trading today – Thursday, May 23, 2024 – on the New York Stock Exchange. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods acted as the joint lead book-runners. Citizens JMP, RBC Capital Markets and Dowling & Partners Securities, LLC acted as joint book-runners. Siebert Williams Shank served as co-manager. 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. The company was founded in 2020 during the pandemic. Bowhead says its ability to write business is “currently largely based on our relationship with AmFam,” American Family Mutual Insurance Company (AFMIC), according to the prospectus. “Through our relationship with AmFam, we are able 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.” Most of Bowhead’s business is written on a non-admitted (Excess & Surplus) basis, the prospectus says. AmFam “indirectly, owns approximately 29.0 percent of our company, as of March 31, 2024,” and it’s “also our strategic partner,”  the prospectus says. AmFam is the nation’s 12th largest P&C group by premiums with policyholder surplus of approximately $7.0 billion as of Dec. 31, 2023, the prospectus says. Bowhead is profitable. The specialty P&C insurer earned net income of $25.05 million on revenue of $283.4 million for the year that ended Dec. 31, 2023, according to financial statements in the prospectus. (For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on our website: IPOScoop.com ) Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board. To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message. Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions. Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.