After the close on Monday came a little-known IPO filing from a life insurance operation called Symetra Financial Corp.  It turns out that the Bellevue, Washington-based insurer has no terms for the sale but listed a sale of up to $575 million in the initial public offering filing.  This is not the first attempt to come public, but it turns out that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) and White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. (NYSE: WTM) effectively control the company.

This one filed for an IPO of up to $750 million back in 2007, but the insurer pulled the plug on the IPO in 2008.  You can guess the reason listed… ‘unfavorable market conditions.’

Symetra plans to trade under the stock ticker “SYA” on the New York Stock Exchange. It has an impressive lineup of joint book running managers: BofA Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital.

We noted that Berkshire Hathaway is a shareholder, and that stake is listed as 26.3%.  But other shareholders include White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. (NYSE: WTM) also listed with a 26.3% stake.  Franklin Mutual Advisers, LLC, a unit of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN) is listed as a 11.7% stakeholder.  Even Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE: OZM) is listed as a 6.6% stakeholder via its OZ Master Fund, Ltd.  Other stakeholders include Vestar Capital Partners, Highfields Capital Management, and Caxton Associates.

Based on how Symetra’s stakeholders are listed and per the filing, this is effectively controlled by Symetra is controlled by Berkshire’s General Re and White Mountains.  This time the company and holders will sell shares, although again terms are not disclosed.

Symetra’s revenues fell by almost 9% in 2008 from 2007 to $1.45 billion, with about 60% coming from group and individual insurance lines.  Most of the drop was attributed to investment losses.

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JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 6, 2009

Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL) hit a yearly high of $13.47 after beating both guidance and analyst estimates for its quarterly earnings.

Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE: KSS) hit a yearly high of $57.19 after the company announced the opening of 37 new stores.

Och-Ziff Capital Management (NYSE: OZM) hit a yearly high of $12.24 as the company continues to recover from a significant decline in assest under management.

Petrobras Energia Participaciones SA (NYSE: PZE) rallied over 180% to a yearly high of $17.97 after it announced that the company was completing reorganization moves.

TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE: TDG) hit a yearly high of $49.94 after announcing that it would offer $425 million of senior subordinated notes in order to fund a special dividend.

Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ: VMED) hit a yearly high of 13.97, capping off a monthly gain of 17%.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) hit a yearly  high of $17.80, capping off a monthly gain of nearly 20%.

Garrett W. McIntyre

DigitalGlobe is set to  open for trading this morning in another highly anticipated initial public offering.  The satellite imagery company will trade on the NYSE with the ticker “DGI.”  The IPO was priced at $19.00 for some 14.7 million shares.  Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Och-Ziff Capital Management (NYSE: OZM), Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) are among the public companies which are all listed as shareholders of DigitalGlobe.

The lead underwriters are listed as Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and co-managers are listed as Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Jefferies.

The pricing is technically above the $16 to $18 per share price range we had previously indicated.  The company has two high-resolution satellites for detailed mapping and plans to launch a third satellite later this year. If you want a direct comparison, the company competes head to head with GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY).

Revenues were $106.8 million in 2006, $151.7 million in 2007, and $275.2 million in 2008.  Be advised that about 70% of the revenues were from the US government.  Two other customers are Google, Microsoft, and Garmin.

Early indications are said to be north of $20.00, although that may rise or fall into the opening of this IPO.

JON C. OGG

These are ten of the top pre-market analyst calls we have seen early this Tuesday morning with more than two hours until the market opens:
Anadarko Petroleum (APC) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
Atmel (ATML) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
Cadbury Schweppes (CBY) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
CNOOC Ltd (CEO) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Extra Space Storage (EXR) Cut to Underweight at KeyBanc.
Netsuite (N) Cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Raised to Outperform at Barclays.
Och-Ziff Capital (OZM) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
Public Storage (PSA) Cut to Underweight at KeyBanc.
Wells Fargo (WFC) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.

JON C. OGG

DigitalGlobe, Inc. may be the next high tech initial public offering, and it looks like several public companies will stand to benefit from it.  This is a high-resolution satellite image operation that will trade under the “DGI” ticker on the New York Stock Exchange.  We have a tentative launch indication of mid-May.  Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Och-Ziff Capital Management (NYSE: OZM), Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) are the public companies which are all listed as shareholders of DigitalGlobe, although these are just a few among the lot of other listed owners and insiders.

A price range of $16.00 to $18.00 has been established, and this would yield approximately $250 million in gross proceeds before fees and commissions.  The lead underwriters are listed as Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and co-managers are listed as Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Jefferies.

The listed shares are noted 43,464,751 shares of common stock outstanding on April 15, 2009 and 44,871,007 shares of common stock outstanding after the completion of this offering.

Approximately 14.7 million shares are in the offering.  The company will be offering 1,366,256 shares of its common stock and the selling stockholders are offering 13,333,744 shares.

DigitalGlobe’s satellite images are used by the defense sector, energy sector, mining sector, and more. The company’s revenue was roughly $275 million in 2008.

JON C. OGG

These are ten of the top pre-market early bird upgrades and downgrades we are seeing from analysts this Friday morning:

• H.B. Fuller (NYSE: FUL) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
• Och-Ziff Capital (NYSE: OZM) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
• Repsol YPF (NYSE: REP) Raised to Buy from Hold at ING; Raised to Hold from Sell at Soc-Gen.
• Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) Started as Outperform at KBW.
• Dover (NYSE: DOV) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
• Emerson Electric (NYSE: EMR) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
• Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
• GlaxoSmithkline (NYSE: GSK) Cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
• Medarex (NASDAQ: MEDX) Started as Sell at Merriman Curhan Ford.
• Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) Cut to Hold from Buy at ING.

Jon C. Ogg
November 14, 2008

Former Lehman Brothers (LEH) CFO Erin Callan has landed quickly—at Credit Suisse Group (CS). She’s the new head of its investment bank’s global hedge fund business.

I hear that she’s been holed up in the Hamptons, and I expected her to take a while to find a new job. Some speculated that she would go to a hedge fund such as Chicago-based Citadel or Och-Ziff (OZM), and maybe even get out of town following a harrowing seven months trying to defend Lehman from worried investors and shortsellers. But Callan is the daughter of a New York City cop and has decided to stay in the game right here. Credit Suisse is one of the few investment banks that’s picking up key talent as the rest of the Street is reeling, as I said in a post three weeks ago. Meanwhile the heat is on Lehman CEO Dick Fuld to do whatever it takes—a deal or some sort of capital infusion—to shore up the company.

P.S. Since Callan and president Joe Gregory stepped down five weeks ago, Lehman’s stock has fallen from $23.75 to $12.40.

Morodo

Morodo y Souchi – Noches de humo

Today, Visa revealed terms for an impending IPO, first announced last November in a registration statement filed with the SEC. Visa is the largest credit card company in the US and operates the world’s largest retail electronic payments network.

Visa’s IPO Terms

Visa plans to offer 406 million shares for $37-$42, and will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “V” [1]. While an official IPO date has not been announced, IPO researchers expect trading to begin on March 20.

The IPO Market

The number of US IPOs priced this year has declined 49% from the number priced at this time a year ago [2], a possible sign that companies expect capital is no longer as freeflowing as before.

Last year’s largest deals were issued by financial firms including Blackstone Group (BX), Interactive Brokers (IBKR), and Och-Ziff (OZM) Capital Management. Demand was strong at first, but after the initial IPO “pop”, the majority of the financial companies ended up with negative returns by the end of the year.

MasterCard (MA) had its IPO back in May 2006, and has had a 400% return since then. MasterCard had a nearly 100% return in the past year. It has consistently beat earnings estimates since IPO and is expected to continue outperforming the business services industry. This has been possible in the terrible credit market because MasterCard provides credit card services and is not an actual credit lender.

Visa, the company

Visa, like MasterCard, derives its revenue from providing processing services to merchants and banks. By using bank issues, Visa does not profit from the interest paid by cardholders, but this also isolates it from debt defaults. Thus, the revenues of card service providers depend largely on consumer spending.

Visa did indeed see a 33% rise in revenue in 2007, although it recorded a loss due to litigation settlements with American Express and Discover.

Life Takes Visa

It seems inopportune for Visa to be offering an IPO at a time when consumer credit is rapidly crunching. What’s the hurry?

It’s likely that the banks invested in Visa are looking for a big pile of cash to help ease the credit crisis. If Visa does indeed raise the $17 billion it is hoping for, this would be good news for underwriters JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS). Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC) are also shareholders.

Visa may also be pushing for an IPO to cover litigation costs after a number of recent lawsuits.

I expect that Visa will underestimate their initial pricing to gain investors’ confidence given uncertain times. And, even though consumers will be cutting back on unnecessary spending, they will probably increase their use of credit cards for the essentials. Visa is also the official sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Games. Paired with this visibility, Visa may be in for a good run-up.

1. Visa SEC filing
2. Renaissance Capital IPO Research

Hedge find manager Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM) has had an interesting post-IPO trading.  It priced at $32.00, but units in the hedge fund manager have traded as  far down as under $22.00 before the $27.81 close on Friday.

It’s interesting that December 24, a day when most traders are out and one of the most quiet trading days of the year, was the broker quiet period end.  Below are the coverage call initiations we have seen this morning:

• Goldman Sachs initiated with Buy ($35 target);
• Keefe Bruyette initiated with Outperform ($33 target);
• Morgan Stanley initiated with Overweight;
• JP Morgan initiated with Overweight;
• Citigroup initiated with Hold ($29 target);

There are other calls that will be hit upon today and perhaps on Wednesday.

Jon C. Ogg
December 24, 2007

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Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM) is set to see its IPO trade Wednesday.  The giant hedge fund operator priced 36,000,000 Class-A shares at $32.00 per share, for proceeds of about $1.15 billion.  The expected price range had been $30.00 to $33.00. The hedge fund company granted the underwriters the option to buy up to an additional 5.4 million Class A shares to cover any overallotments.

As previously noted, Och-Ziff is selling another $1.15 Billion in shares to Dubai International Capital LLC, a subsidiary of Dubai Holding LLC, and they will own a 9.9% stake in Och-Ziff after the offering.

Och-Ziff plans to use proceeds from the IPO and from Dubai International to buy interests in the company from its existing owners, which includes members of senior management. Och-Ziff’s existing partners will reinvest all their proceeds into the company’s funds.

Och-Ziff’s underwriting group is massive.  Goldman Sachs and Lehman Bros. are tagged as the lead underwriters, and other key underwriters are Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and J.P.Morgan.  Co-managers with smaller allocations are listed as Credit Suisse, Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Bear Stearns, Macquarie, Nomura, BOC International, Ramirez & co., and Utendahl Capital Partners.  While some of the key European investment banks are not listed in here, it looks like the hedge fund operator is giving an allocation to every investment banker in its rolodex.

More detailed information on this and other IPO’s is previewed on our open email distribution list, and there we often cover spin-offs, break-ups, reorganizations, and more.

Jon C. Ogg
November 14, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the more detailed 24/7 Wall St. subscriber-based Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Och-Ziff is one step closer to coming public, and this is set to trade under the ticker "OZM" on the New York Stock Exchange.  The hedge fund family is indicated to sell 36 million class A shares priced in a range of $30 to $33 per share.  The company has also agreed to sell a stake to Dubai International Capital LLC, pursuant to which it will sell 38,138,571 Class A shares so it will beneficially own 9.9% of the outstanding Class A shares on the closing date of this offering.

Interestingly enough, Och-Ziff’s underwriting group is massive.  Goldman Sachs and Lehman Bros. are tagged as the lead underwriters, and other key underwriters are Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and J.P.Morgan.  Co-managers with smaller allocations are listed as Credit Suisse, Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Bear Stearns, Macquarie, Nomura, BOC International, Ramirez & co., and Utendahl Capital Partners.  While some of the key European investment banks are not listed in here, it looks like the hedge fund operator is giving an allocation to every investment banker in its rolodex.

As of September 30, 2007, Och-Ziff managed approximately $30.1 Billion in assets from over 700 fund investors.  More detailed information on this and other IPO’s and spin-offs goes out to our public distribution list several times per week.

Jon C. Ogg
November 12, 2007