NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Verisk Analytics Inc., the supplier of actuarial data co-owned by property-casualty insurers including Travelers Cos. and CNA Financial Corp., plans to raise as much as $2.06 billion in an initial share sale that could be the largest since Visa Inc. in 2008.

Verisk plans to sell 85.3 million shares at a price from $19 to $21 each, the Jersey City, New Jersey-based firm said in a regulatory filing. Underwriters led by Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley have the option to sell an additional 12.7 million shares if demand warrants.

IPOs dropped to a decade-low $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2009 as the credit contraction sent indexes to their worst annual losses since the Great Depression last year. The sale could be the largest since Visa raised $19.7 billion in March 2008. Verisk joins more than 20 other companies that have filed to go public in the US since the beginning of August, compared with 16 for the first half of the year, according to data from Renaissance Capital LLC's IPOHome.com Web site.

In the US this year, 16 companies have raised $4.35 billion compared with 36 firms tapping the public markets for $29.5 billion in the same period last year, according to Bloomberg data.

Verisk is seeking to capitalize on demand for data that insurance companies use to price coverage and detect policyholder fraud.

Insurers analyse records on everything from weather to driving behaviour to select customers and set rates.

"There is a long-term trend for companies to set strategy and direct operations using data and analytics to guide their decisions, which has resulted in a large and rapidly growing market for professional and business information," Verisk said in the filing.