HUB IPO Begins Trading
By Mark E. Ruquet
NU Online News Service, June 18, 12:07 p.m. EST?Insurance broker Hub International's initial public offering began trading slightly above its $14 a-share offering price in its first day on the New York Stock Exchange.
During the morning the stock was selling at $14.50 a share, which would bring the total value of the offering to more than $100 million.
The Ontario, Canada-based broker, with executive offices in Chicago and 89 offices throughout the U.S. and Canada, priced six million shares of common stock at $14 per share on the New York Stock Exchange, with another 900,000 shares available to cover over-allotments.
The firm's shares began trading under the symbol "HBG," and J.P. Morgan Securities is the lead manager in the offering. Co-managers are Cochran, Caronia Securities, LLC; Stephens Inc.; BMO Nesbitt Burns Corp., and Ferris, Baker Watts Inc.
The shares are not being traded in Canada.
The firm said it was formed in 1998 through the merger of 11 Canadian brokers, and soon expanded throughout the Midwest and Northeast U.S., and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. The firm is a full service broker dealing in property-casualty, life-health, risk management and employee benefit products.
The broker said in the first quarter of 2002, net earnings increased 100 percent, going from $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2001 to $4.9 million in the first quarter of 2002. Revenues for the quarter were $49.5 million, up 76 percent from $28.1 million in 2001.
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