Beazley announces £167.5m flotation

The Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley unveiled plans for a £167.5m flotation yesterday, which would be the biggest London debut since the fashion house Burberry in July.

Beazley said it planned to raise £150m by placing 89.5 per cent of its enlarged share capital with investors at 73p a share. It expects to start trading next Tuesday.

Analysts said Beazley's decision was more a function of a strong insurance market, which has benefited from rising premiums since the September 2001 attacks in the US, rather than any general revival of confidence in the IPO market.

Andrew Beazley, the chief executive and co-founder, said: "It's not an ideal time to be coming to market, but I think investors realise the opportunities in the specialist insurance market."

The company said it would use the money raised in the share issue to increase its underwriting capacity to £660m from £403m this year. Beazley specialises in insuring the commercial property market, service industries, other insurers and marine companies.

Numis Securities is lead manager to the flotation, with Lexicon Partners acting as joint financial adviser and Banc of America Securities co-manager.