Brazil's Porto Seguro prices IPO at 18.75 reais

Brazilian insurance company Porto Seguro SA priced its initial public offering at 18.75 reais per share on Thursday, near the middle of the range it had said it would seek in the stock sale.

The 55-year-old company should raise about 443 million reais ($159 million) in the sale, according to information posted on the Web site of Brazil's CVM securities regulator.The company's stock is scheduled to begin trading on Monday.

Like other recent IPOs, Porto Seguro's order book had heavy interest from foreign investors and was several times oversubscribed, a source close the deal said.

The sale should put almost a quarter of the company's stock on the New Market, an arm of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange with tough accounting and disclosure rules that gives companies higher valuations.

Porto Seguro has 17,000 brokers across Brazil and 5,200 direct employees in 120 offices. It posted a net profit of 141 million reais in 2003, up 17 percent from the previous year.

Porto Seguro is one of a growing number of Brazilian companies taking advantage of improved economic stability to raise funds cheaply on the country's reviving equity capital market.
($1 = 2.778 reais).

(From Reuters, November 19, 2004)

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