IPO snapshot: Ram Holdings Ltd.

Headquarters: Ram Re House, 46 Reid Street, Hamilton.

Telephone: 441-296-6501

Website: www.ramre.bm

Business: Sells financial guaranty reinsurance including to bond insurers, including US municipal bond insurance giant MBIA.

IPO registration filed: February 10

Share Information:Not disclosed.

Price: Valued at $250 million. This is for calculation purposes and the IPO's proceeds could differ materially.

Underwriters:Banc of America Securities LLC, Merrill Lynch & Co.,Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Use of Proceeds: Ram Holdings said in its IPO prospectus it intended to contribute substantially all of the net proceeds from the offering to its operating subsidiary, Ram Re, to increase capital and surplus in order to increase its ability to sell more reinsurance policies.

History: The company was founded in 1998 as a Bermuda-based provider of financial guaranty reinsurance, through wholly-owned subsidiary Ram Reinsurance Company Ltd. It sells policies to US and international financial guaranty insurers. In its offering prospectus, Ram says it is the only third-party financial guaranty reinsurer to be ‘AAA' rated by ratings firm Standard & Poor's. The company derives a significant percentage of its revenue from net investment income. It said it does not compete with its customers by selling financial guaranty insurance, and the fact that there are few competitors that have the high financial strength rating it carries gives it a “competitive advantage”, the company said in its offering prospectus.

Performance:Ram said its business growth has been at an annual compounded rate of nearly 33 percent over the 2000 to 2004 period. Growth in business, measured by the total policies the company sold, for the first nine months of 2005 was at a rate of 15 percent, it said. Net income for the same nine-month period was $14.5 million, down from $19.8 million reported during the same period a year prior. The company said its business typically has a ‘low loss experience' giving it a steady income from premiums. Under the company's business model it can build up a large unearned premium reserve that is gradually earned over a period of time, with the premiums for some of the risks it reinsures being earned over a period up to 20 years, or longer.

Risk Factors: Ram Holdings said its company faces several risk factors including a negative ratings action in future (insurers can stop buying from a reinsurer that sees its financial strength rating drop below a certain rating), its reliance on business from a small customer base, the fact that it does not separately evaluate the individual risks that it assumes from the insurers it reinsures, if it were to lose key employees, general economic and capital market conditions, and if it were to become subject to US taxes.

Management: Steven Tynan, chairman; Vernon Endo, president and chief executive; Richard Lutenski, chief financial officer.

Principal Shareholders: The PMI Group (24.9 percent); Transatlantic Reinsurance Company (22.7 percent); Greenwich Street Capital Partners (11.4 percent); MBIA Insurance Corporation (11.4 percent).