U.S. Arm Of Insurer AXA Seeks To Raise $4 Bln In IPO

(RTTNews) - AXA Equitable Holdings, the U.S. arm of the French insurer AXA SA (AXAHY.PK), is planning to set an initial price range for its IPO early next week, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. It hopes to raise roughly $4 billion and will seek a valuation of roughly $12 billion in the offering, the report said. The company is expected to start trading in the first week of May.

AXA Equitable Holdings is one of America's oldest life insurers, founded in 1859 in New York, and was long known as Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. AXA acquired it in 1992.

Some of the proceeds of the IPO will be used by AXA Equitable Holdings' parent company to help finance its $15.3 billion purchase of XL Group Ltd. AXA announced its plans to buy XL in early March.