Greenlight Re IPO seeks to raise $195M

GEORGETOWN, Grand Cayman--Greenlight Capital Re Ltd. sought to raise nearly $195 million in its initial public offering on Thursday.

Greenlight Re, the first open-market reinsurer to be based in the Cayman Islands, offered to the public 10.25 million Class A ordinary shares priced at $19 a share.

Substantially all of the net proceeds of the IPO will be used to increase the underwriting capacity of the company's reinsurance operations, Greenlight Re said in a statement.

Shares are now traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol GLRE.

New York-based hedge fund Greenlight Capital Inc. launched the reinsurer in late 2005 with $220 million in capital (BI, Nov. 21, 2005).