LONDON The commercial insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings Ltd., parent of the Willis Group, priced its initial public offering of 20 million shares of common stock at $13.50 a share.
The shares started trading last Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange under WSH. Willis granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to three million additional shares to cover any overallotments.
Proceeds before the companys out-of-pocket expenses from the offering are expected to be $270 million and will be used to redeem preference shares of its TA II Ltd. subsidiary, to repurchase senior subordinated notes of Willis North America, or both.
Willis Group provides specialized risk management, advisory, and other services to corporate and institutional clients. Its chairman and chief executive officer, Joseph Plumeri, the former head of Citigroups retail banking operations, joined in October.
