(Reuters) – Shares of Enact Holdings Inc, the mortgage insurance unit of insurer Genworth Financial Inc, traded more than 5% higher in their Nasdaq debut on Thursday, giving it a valuation of $3.26 billion.
Shares opened at $20, compared to their initial public offering price (IPO) of $19 per share.
The debut comes after parent Genworth revived Enact’s IPO earlier in the week. It had deferred the offering in May, citing excessive market volatility.
Genworth sold 13.3 million shares of Enact in the listing, raising about $253 million. Shares were priced at the bottom of the expected range of between $19 and $20 each. Proceeds from the sale of common stock will not go to Enact, and Genworth will continue to hold a majority position.
Investment management firm Bayview Asset Management also purchased 14.7 million shares of Enact’s common stock in a private placement concurrent with the IPO. The stock had a value of $278.5 million, according to Reuters calculations based upon an Enact statement on Wednesday.
Genworth moved to list Enact after the parent firm’s $2.7 billion buyout agreement with China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co, the investment firm of billionaire Lu Zhiqiang, fell through in April.
The deal, originally proposed in October 2016, stalled for years due to concerns over China’s access to sensitive data on U.S. citizens.
Founded in 1981, Raleigh, North Carolina-based Enact provides credit protection to mortgage lenders and investors and operates in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Enact grew its net insurance policies written in 2020 to $99.9 billion, compared to $62.4 billion a year earlier. Its profit fell about 45% in the same period due to higher loss reserves related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan were the lead bookrunners for the offering.
(Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru and David French in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
