M&A

17 November, 2009

UPDATE 1-Verisk sees M&A opportunities in healthcare, mortgage

* Sees potential deals in insurance, risk management * Sees one-time charges of about $59.2 mln in Q4

* Shares fall 3 percent

Nov 17 (Reuters) - Insurance risk specialist Verisk Analytics Inc (VRSK.O), which went public last month, said it sees a number of acquisition opportunities, particularly in healthcare and mortgage.

The company, partly owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), also said it saw potential deals in the insurance and risk management sectors.

"We have a very active pipeline in all of our segments," a company executive said on a conference call with analysts.

Verisk expects to record a one-time charge of $57.7 million related to its employee stock options purchase plan and a charge of about $1.5 million from initial public offering costs in the fourth quarter, it said on the call.

On Monday, Verisk posted a third-quarter profit of $42.2 million, or 23 cents a share, compared with $40.8 million, or 22 cents a share last year. On an adjusted basis, it earned 30 cents a share.

Verisk had raised $1.9 billion in an initial public offering last month, making it the biggest IPO by a U.S. firm since credit card operator Visa Inc (V.N) raised $19.6 billion in 2008. [ID:nN07212644]

Shares of the company, which competes with RiskMetrics Group Inc (RMG.N) and MSCI Inc (MXB.N), were down more than 3 percent at $27.85 in morning trade Tuesday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro and Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore; Editing by Pradeep Kurup)

Source: http://www.reuters.com