Fortegra to sell 7.7 million shares

Jacksonville, FL - Fortegra Financial Corp. intends to sell 7.7 million shares of common stock at $14 to $16 each in its initial public offering, according to an updated registration statement filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The stock sale will consist of about 4.3 million new shares issued by the company and 3.4 million shares sold by its existing stockholders. That includes about 3.1 million shares sold by its majority stockholder, Summit Partners, which currently owns 87.3 percent of Fortegra's stock. The venture capital firm, which acquired control of Fortegra in 2007, will still own 48.7 percent of the stock after the IPO, according to the filing.

Officers and directors of the company are planning to sell about 129,000 shares in the IPO and will retain a total of 8.8 percent of the stock after the sale.

Fortegra originally filed plans for an IPO in September but did not give details about how much stock would be sold until Friday's filing.

Fortegra was founded in 1981 and was originally known as Life of the South Corp., but it changed its name to Fortegra last year. The company provides distribution and administrative services and insurance-related products to insurance companies, brokers, agents and other financial services companies.

The company reported revenue of $154.2 million and net income of $11.7 million in the first nine months of this year.

Fortegra is currently headquartered in a seven-story building in downtown Jacksonville that still carries the Life of the South name. But the company announced in October plans to move to the Deerwood South business park at Southside and Butler boulevards.

The company estimates it will net about $55 million in proceeds by selling the new shares of stock. That money will be used to redeem preferred stock and pay off debt.

Fortegra intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "FRF" once the IPO is complete. According to Greenwich, Conn.-based IPO research firm Renaissance Capital, the stock sale is scheduled to take place during the week of Dec. 13.

mark.basch@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4308

Basch, Mark. Fortegra to sell 7.7 million shares. December 4,2010. The Florida Times Union. pp.C8.