Fidelis Insurance Holdings Limited, the privately owned, Bermudian-based holding company, has announced the launch of its initial public offering of 17 million of its common shares.

The company, with insurance and reinsurance operations in Bermuda, Ireland and the United Kingdom, said the offering consists of 5,714,286 common shares offered by the company and 11,285,714 common shares to be sold by certain of the company's existing shareholders.

In addition, the underwriters will have a 30-day option to buy an additional 2,550,000 common shares from the selling shareholders.

The IPO price is expected to be between $16 and $19 per common share. The common shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "FIHL."

The company said it will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of its common shares by the selling shareholders.

At a share price of $16, the sale of all shares offered by the company would raise $91.4 million while at a share price of $19 it would raise $108.6 million.

The company said it intends to use the net proceeds it receives from the offering to make capital contributions to its insurance operating subsidiaries, which, together with other sources of liquidity, should enable the company to take advantage of the ongoing rate hardening in the key markets in which it participates by writing more business under its planned strategy.

JP Morgan, Barclays and Jefferies are acting as joint lead book running managers for the proposed offering.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a Stifel company, BMO Capital Markets, Citigroup and UBS Investment Bank are acting as joint book running managers.

JMP Securities, A Citizens Company and Dowling & Partners Securities are acting as co-managers.

The proposed offering of the company's common shares will be made only by means of a prospectus.

A registration statement relating to the proposed IPO has been filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, but has not yet become effective.

The company said the common shares may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective.

In January, FIHL completed a transaction creating a new managing general underwriter separate from FIHL and the existing insurance companies (the Fidelis Insurance Group).

The transaction was originally announced last July.