Mortgage insurance firm Essent Group Ltd was able to gather USD 335 million in its initial public offering. JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc backed the US home loan guarantor. Data from Bloomberg showed that Essent and some of its investors were able to sell 19.7 million shares in the debut. The shares were priced on the high end at USD 17 apiece. The company had announced that shares would be priced at USD 13.50 to USD 15.50 each. Essent's sale of 24% of its stake has placed given the company a value of USD 1.42 billion.
Essent would start trading tomorrow on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "ESNT." The share sale was led by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Barclays.
Essent was the first home loan guarantor that conducted an IPO in nearly twenty years, Bloomberg reported. Nearly half of the players in the industry experienced losses and had to quit. The report added that Radian Group Inc, MGIC Investment Corp and others who survived had to sell stock and debt to shore up capital.
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