Axis Capital is set to float this week on the New York Stock Exchange - hoping to raise about $460 million in the process.

The company cannot say when the initial public offering will take place, but the Bermuda-based insurance firm is offering 21.4 million shares, at $19.50 to $21.50, each with underwriters Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.

Axis Capital filed its IPO on March 6 with plans to raise up to $518 million in proceeds.

While IPOs have been scarce overall, Axis Capital is the latest in a series of deals from financial services providers.

The company rang up $1.1 million in net income and $537 million in revenue in fiscal 2002 as a provider of speciality insurance and treaty reinsurance. Axis Capital was founded in November, 2001.

The Bermuda-based insurer, which was formed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, said it expects to have a potential market value of about $3 billion. Axis wrote $608.6 million of gross premiums and posted $107.1 million in net income in the first quarter of 2003. In 2002, Axis wrote $1.1 billion of gross premiums and generated $265.1 million in net income, according to an SEC filing in June.

The company is selling 13.4 million shares while shareholders are offering an additional 8.1 million shares. Axis predicted it will net about $256 million in proceeds, which it plans to use as additional capital for operations and general corporate purposes. It will not get any of the proceeds from the stock sold by the shareholders, which include Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. and J.P. Morgan, according to the SEC filing.

Axis will become the fourth post 9/11 Bermuda start-up to list on the New York Stock Exchange. In the past 12 months, Montpelier Re, Platinum Underwriting and most recently Endurance Speciality, have also gone the IPO route. Last year was an infrastructure building year for Axis.

With the opening of their Dublin office and expansion into the US market by acquiring three US companies and licences in Connecticut and New York they can now be described as a truly global player. The high point to the year, however, was the receipt by the operating companies of a Standard & Poor's “A” rating.

The group covers two main sectors: speciality insurance and treaty reinsurance. Their speciality insurance segment includes speciality risks (including terrorism, marine and aviation war risk and political risk); onshore and offshore energy; aviation and aerospace; commercial property; and marine.

The treaty reinsurance refers to reinsurance written in bulk rather than on a policy-by-policy basis. The underlying policies include: property; workers' compensation, personal accident and life; professional liability; casualty clash; marine and aviation.