National Financial Completes IPO, Shops For Distribution Firms

By Allison Bell

September 19, 2003 at 08:00 PM

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NU Online News Service, Sept. 19, 2003, 6:07 p.m. EDT – National Financial Partners Corp., New York, has raised $209 million by selling 9.1 million shares of stock to the public through its first public offering.

The lead underwriter is Goldman, Sachs & Company Inc., New York.

National Financial's share price closed Friday at $26.20, up 14% from the initial public offering price of $23.

National Financial wants to build a major financial services distribution network by acquiring existing distribution firms and encouraging the original owners to continue to run the firms.

The chief executive officer of the 5-year-old company, Jennifer Bibliowicz, is the daughter of Sanford Weill, the CEO of Citigroup Inc., New York.

The company now has relationships with 1,200 producers, and it reported $6.4 million in net income for the first half on $171 million in revenue, up from $5.2 million in net income on $130 million in revenue for the first half of 2002.

"We believe that substantial opportunities exist for further growth through disciplined acquisitions of high quality firms," National Financial says in its IPO prospectus. "We believe our target market for acquisitions includes over 4,000 estate planning, corporate benefits and financial planning firms."

So far, National Financial has reviewed more than 800 acquisition opportunities and made 146 acquisitions, the company says.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has posted the prospectus at http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1183186/000119312503051422/d424b4.htm

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