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Insurer's Public Offering To Fund Bay Area Expansion

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By RICHARD MULLINS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 31, 2008

A new homeowners insurance company plans to expand operations in the Bay area and raised millions of dollars from investors this week.

Homeowners Choice Inc. started operations in 2007, backed by prominent Bay area businesspeople. The company adopts property and casualty homeowner policies from the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which operates as an insurer of last resort for homeowners who can't find insurance on the retail market.

Periodically, "take out" insurance companies will take over a number of those policies, generally if they can charge less money than Citizens.

To help fund operations, Homeowners Choice raised about $11.7 million this week through an initial public offering. Its shares will trade on the NASDAQ stock market under the tickers HCIIU and HCII, according to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It operates offices in St. Petersburg and Port St. Lucie and soon will move to facilities in Clearwater. The company plans to market insurance more broadly to the public.

Board members of the company include Paresh Patel, a private investor in Tampa; Martin Traber, a partner with the law firm of Foley & Lardner; and George Apostolou, founder of George Apostolou Construction Corp.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919 or rmullins@tampatrib.com.

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