St. Paul To De-List From London Stock Exchange

By Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, Dec. 27, 10:00 a.m.EST?The St. Paul Companies Inc. announced that it willde-list its common stock on the London Stock Exchange, effectiveJan. 23, 2003.

The St. Paul said it decided to de-list from the exchange inlight of its reduced overseas presence, and also because asecondary listing was no longer necessary to provide liquidity inthe stock. The company's common stock has had a secondary listingon the London Stock Exchange since February 1995.

"We have pulled back on our international operations, so wedon't have as much presence outside the U.S. as we used to. Theinternational operations weren't as profitable as we had hoped theywould be," Barbara Reynolds, senior communications manager at TheSt. Paul, told National Underwriter.

Ms. Reynolds said the company will continue to list its commonstock for trading on the New York Stock Exchange. "Our listing onthe NYSE takes care of any trading that we want to do," she said.The St. Paul was first listed on the Big Board in 1991, andcurrently has 226.4 million common shares outstanding.

The St. Paul Companies, headquartered in St. Paul, Minn.,provides commercial property-liability insurance products and assetmanagement services. It reported 2001 revenues from continuingoperations of $8.9 billion and total assets of $38.3 billion.