Selective Insurance Group Announces the Pricing of $175 Million
Aggregate Principal Amount of Senior Notes
BRANCHVILLE, N.J., Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Selective
Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIGI) today announced the sale of
$175 million aggregate principal
amount of 5.875% Senior Notes due 2043. The settlement date
for the offering is expected to be February
8, 2013, subject to customary closing conditions.
Selective granted the underwriters the option to purchase up to an
additional $25 million principal
amount of Senior Notes within 30 days solely to cover
over-allotments. The Senior Notes are redeemable on or after
February 8, 2018, at 100% of their
principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but
excluding, the date of redemption.
Selective intends to apply for listing of the Senior Notes on
the New York Stock Exchange. If the application is approved,
Selective expects trading in the Senior Notes to begin within 30
days of issuance under the symbol "SGZA." The net proceeds from the
offering will be used to redeem all $100
million aggregate principal amount of Selective's 7.5%
Junior Subordinated Notes due 2066 at a redemption price equal to
100% of their principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest
thereon to, but excluding, the date of redemption. The
remaining proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes,
which may include capital contributions to Selective's insurance
subsidiaries.
Wells Fargo Securities, LLC and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner
& Smith Incorporated acted as joint book-running managers for
the offering.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a
solicitation to buy these securities nor shall there be any offer
or sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such an
offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The Senior Notes may
be offered only by means of a preliminary prospectus supplement and
accompanying base prospectus. Copies of these documents may
be obtained by contacting:
- Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, 1525 West W.T. Harris Blvd.,
NC0675, Charlotte, North Carolina
28262, Attention: Capital Markets Client Support, toll-free:
1-800-326-5897 or email: cmclientsupport@wellsfargo.com; or
- Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
toll-free at 1-800-294-1322, Address: 222 Broadway, 11th Floor,
New York, New York 10038.
About Selective Insurance Group, Inc.
Selective Insurance Group, Inc. is a holding company for ten
property and casualty insurance companies rated "A" (Excellent) by
A.M. Best. Through independent agents, the insurance companies
offer primary and alternative market insurance for commercial and
personal risks, and flood insurance underwritten by the National
Flood Insurance Program.
Forward-Looking Statements
In this press release, Selective and its management discuss and
make statements based on currently available information regarding
their intentions, beliefs, current expectations and projections
regarding Selective's future operations and performance.
Certain statements in this report, including information
incorporated by reference, are "forward-looking statements" as that
term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995 ("PSLRA"). The PSLRA provides a safe harbor under the
Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for
forward-looking statements. These statements relate to our
intentions, beliefs, projections, estimations or forecasts of
future events or our future financial performance and involve known
and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause
our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, or
performance to be materially different from those expressed or
implied by the forward-looking statements. In some cases, you
can identify forward-looking statements by use of words such as
"may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan,"
"anticipate," "target," "project," "intend," "believe," "estimate,"
"predict," "potential," "pro forma," "seek," "likely" or "continue"
or other comparable terminology. These statements are only
predictions, and we can give no assurance that such expectations
will prove to be correct. We undertake no obligation, other
than as may be required under the federal securities laws, to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether
as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially
from those projected, forecasted or estimated by us in
forward-looking statements, include, but are not limited
to:
- difficult conditions in global capital markets and the
economy;
- deterioration in the public debt and equity markets and private
investment marketplace that could lead to investment losses and
fluctuations in interest rates;
- ratings downgrades could affect investment values and therefore
statutory surplus;
- the adequacy of our loss reserves and loss expense
reserves;
- the frequency and severity of natural and man-made catastrophic
events, including, but not limited to, hurricanes, tornadoes,
windstorms, earthquakes, hail, terrorism, explosions, severe winter
weather, floods and fires;
- adverse market, governmental, regulatory, legal or judicial
conditions or actions;
- the concentration of our business in the Eastern Region;
- the cost and availability of reinsurance;
- our ability to collect on reinsurance and the solvency of our
reinsurers;
- uncertainties related to insurance premium rate increases and
business retention;
- changes in insurance regulations that impact our ability to
write and/or cease writing insurance policies in one or more
states, particularly changes in New
Jersey automobile insurance laws and regulations;
- recent federal financial regulatory reform provisions that
could pose certain risks to our operations;
- our ability to maintain favorable ratings from rating agencies,
including A.M. Best, Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch;
- our entry into new markets and businesses; and
- other risks and uncertainties we identify in filings with the
United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but
not limited to, our Annual Report on Form 10-K and other periodic
reports.
These risk factors may not be exhaustive. We operate in a
continually changing business environment, and new risk factors
emerge from time-to-time. We can neither predict such new
risk factors nor can we assess the impact, if any, of such new risk
factors on our businesses or the extent to which any factor or
combination of factors may cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking
statements in this report. In light of these risks,
uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed
in this report might not occur.
SOURCE Selective Insurance Group, Inc.