WASHINGTON (Dow Jones/AP) — Bermuda company CastlePoint Holdings Ltd., which provides products to insurance companies, has filed for an initial public offering.The company didn’t disclose how many shares will be offered, nor did it provide an estimated price range for the offering, but it said the offering could be up to $50 million in common shares.

CastlePoint is a Hamilton-based holding company organised in November 2005 to provide property and casualty insurance and reinsurance products and services primarily to small insurance companies and programme underwriting agents in the US.

Tower Group Inc., a New York-based specialty property and casualty insurance company, is CastlePoint’s sponsor and the company’s largest customer, according to the company’s prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tower Group currently owns 11.6 percent interest in CastlePoint, the filing said.

The company said it intends to use the net proceeds from the IPO to further capitalise its reinsurance subsidiary and for general corporate purposes.

The company said it has applied to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol CPHL.

Friedman Billings Ramsey is listed as the underwriter for the offering.

Since inception to September 30, 2006, the company reported net income of $3.74 million on total revenue of $55.5 million.