In an amended Form S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, financial services provider Citigroup, Inc.'s (C) wholly-owned subsidiary and life-insurance unit Primerica, Inc. (PRI) revealed that it plans to launch an initial public offering or IPO, for 18 million shares of common stock, which is expected to be priced between $12 to $13 per share, to raise an estimated $290 million. Primerica said it has applied to have its common stock listed on the NYSE under the symbol "PRI".
Duluth, Georgia-based Primerica, a distributor of financial products to middle income households in North America, noted that all of the shares sold in the offering will be sold by Citigroup, and Citigroup will receive all the proceeds from the offering. Citigroup has also granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to 2.70 million additional shares of common stock to cover over-allotments.
Concurrently, Citigroup has also agreed to sell in a private sale to private equity funds managed by Warburg Pincus LLC about 17.21 million shares of Primerica common stock for about $230 million, leading to the private equity funds holding about 23% stake in Primerica. The fund can also raise its investment by another $100 million, buying about 4.3 million additional shares at the IPO price as part of the concurrent private sale.
Following the IPO and the Warburg deal, Citigroup will beneficially retain between about 32% and 46% of Primerica's pro forma shares of common stock, and funds managed by Warburg will own between about 23% and 33% of pro forma common shares. These stakes would depend on level that underwriters would exercise over-allotment option and Warburg exercise right to buy additional shares.
While initially filing for the IPO back in November 2009, Primerica co-chief executive officer, Rick Williams said, "This is an important step in our company's history, and we look forward to completing the offering and becoming a public company. Becoming a public company is an opportunity to align the interests of our independent sales force and our employees with our future performance."
Citigroup, the nation's third-largest bank, noted that the spinoff of Primerica through the IPO represents an important step in simplifying its organization, strengthening capital levels and sheding noncore operations. Citigroup believes that this is the best separation alternative for this franchise. Citigroup put up the unit for sale months ago, but failed to attract private equity groups or rival insurance companies to buy the unit.
In the wake of current economic conditions, Citigroup has been implementing various cost cutting measures and shedding unwanted flab. The company is also pulling out some of its operations and divesting assets it acquired over the years, in order to focus on its core financial services competencies.
Citigroup, which was rescued by $45 billion in bail-out funds in three tranches from the U.S. Treasury's TARP Capital Purchase Program, is currently abandoning its acquisition-fueled growth strategy that built the company from a small consumer-finance business into one of the world's largest financial institutions. The company currently intends to get back to its pre-merger looks by slimming-down by a third, in order to return to profitability.
C closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $4.05, up $0.10 on a volume of 541.62 million shares, lower than the three-month average volume of 567.96 million shares.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.