Bellevue-based Symetra files plan for big IPO

Symetra Financial, the life and health insurer spun out from Safeco in 2003, is giving the initial-public-offering wheel another spin.

The Bellevue company, which postponed a stock sale valued at as much as $908.5 million during the financial turmoil of late 2007, filed plans Monday for a more modest offering of $575 million.

Unlike the previous deal, which would have involved only existing shareholders, Symetra plans to sell new shares this time around. Its preliminary filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission didn't indicate how many shares would be sold by the company or how many by existing holders.

Symetra is controlled by General Re, one of the biggest pieces of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, and White Mountains Insurance Group of Bermuda. Each has a 26.3 percent stake.

Franklin Mutual Advisers owns 11.7 percent of the insurer, and a half-dozen investment firms own smaller stakes.

Symetra sells group life and medical insurance, individual life policies, retirement annuities and other financial products. It has about 1.8 million customers.

About 60 percent of its $1.45 billion in 2008 revenue came from the group and individual insurance lines.

Symetra employs about 1,100 people in 19 offices across the United States.

Total revenue last year was down 8.7 percent from 2007, mainly because of losses on investment securities. Net profit shrank to $22.1 million from $167.3 million the previous year.

A change in accounting rules related to declines in the fair value of investments, which took effect Jan. 1, helped Symetra show a first-half profit of $52.1 million, versus $31.8 million in the same period a year earlier.

The company expects to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SYA.

Drew DeSilver: 206-464-3145 or ddesilver@seattletimes.com