Conifer Sets Expected Price Range For IPO

The underwriters for this offering are BMO Capital Markets, Raymond James, Sandler O’Neil, and William Blair.

This is a Michigan-based insurance holding company formed in 2009. Through its insurance subsidiaries, Conifer offers insurance coverage in both specialty commercial and specialty personal product lines. Many of the products are targeted to profitable classes of policyholders that are underserved by other insurers.

Conifer markets and sells these insurance products through a growing network of over 4,500 independent agents that distribute policies through their approximately 2,200 sales offices writing business in 44 states. The company is focused on growing its business in non-commoditized property and casualty insurance markets, while maintaining underwriting discipline and a conservative investment strategy. The commercial lines and personal lines business accounted for 65% and 35%, respectively, of net earned premiums for the three months ended March 2015 and 62% and 38%, respectively, of the net earned premiums for the year ended December 2014.

In the filing Conifer said:

In our commercial lines business, we seek to differentiate ourselves and provide value to small business owner-operators by bundling different insurance products that meet a significant portion of their insurance needs. For example, in the hospitality market we offer property, casualty, and liquor liability, as well as, in some jurisdictions, workers’ compensation coverage. The breadth of our specialty commercial insurance products enables our small business customers, many of whom do not have dedicated risk management personnel, and their agents, to save the administrative costs and time required to seek coverage for these items from separate insurers. As such, we compete for commercial lines business based on our flexible product offerings and customer service, rather than on pricing alone. Our target commercial lines customer has an average account size of $5,000 in premium.

In the first quarter of 2015, Conifer had revenues of $15.6 million, up from $13.2 million in the same period from last year. For the 2014 full year the company had revenues of $60.9 million, up from $33.5 million in 2013 and $19.6 million in 2012.

The company intends to use the proceeds to pay down its indebtedness and for general corporate purposes.