Small and kind of Junky insurance company Conifer Holdings (CNFR) has registered a new offering of notes.
The company has an issue of notes outstanding with a maturity date in September, 2023, but which are currently callable (as of 9/2021). The old issue can be found here Shares were trading at $22.xx yesterday and today are at $24.70.
The company is losing money and the common shares are trading at $1.73/share. Potential investors should be very cautious with this company. They recently released earning which can be seen here. AM Best has recently downgraded most of the company’s businesses.
The S-1 registration statement can be seen here.
2whiteroses dredged up this potential offering.
From the S1 filed with the SEC yesterday…their intentions seem clear
USE OF PROCEEDS
We estimate that the net proceeds from this offering will be approximately $ after discounts, commissions and expenses related to this offering. We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to redeem all of the $ million outstanding principal amount of the 6.75% Senior Unsecured Notes Due 2023. The Senior Notes Due 2023 are currently redeemable in whole or in part at any time or from time to time at our option upon not less than 30 nor more than 60 days’ prior notice at a redemption price equal to the principal amount redeemed plus accrued and unpaid interest on the 6.75% Senior Unsecured Notes Due 2023 being redeemed. Pending such application, such proceeds may be temporarily invested in short-term marketable securities or applied to the reduction of short-term indebtedness. Any remaining net proceeds from this offering will be used for general corporate purposes.
Well, they did not (yet, at least – 13 months later) redeem the 2023 notes and now have an exchange offer out for 2023 notes…
What this thread alludes to is the initial S-1 filing Conifer made with the SEC a year ago in a process commonly known as a shelf registration because it allows a company up to three years to fully act on it without having to reregister. As I noted last year when this thread was started, Conifer intends to use the proceeds from the new notes to redeem the old notes, and the recent offer to voluntarily exchange their old notes for the new ones is just the next step in that process.
-btw There is no requirement for existing note holders to make the exchange and no reason to believe the remaining old notes won’t be fully redeemed at maturity in September…especially since Conifer is finally making money again, albeit not very much. 😉
Also the exchange offer runs until July 25 I believe..
As always DYODD…
I just dumped CNFRL today, and I have held it and sold it (flip) two other times. I second Tim’s opinion regarding the “losing money”.
Losing money seems like all this company does for the last year or so since I’ve traded it. The only thing it might have going for it is that management had skin in the game. They have just never really executed a profitable plan.
Management should probably should fire themselves and hire somebody better. Then, they can look to sell out to the highest bidder after the mess is cleaned up or just improve performance of the common.
Anyhow, I got this the other day FWIW…
4/21/22
“AM Best has downgraded the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) to “bb-” (Fair) from “bb” (Fair) of Conifer Holdings, Inc.(CNFR) [NASDAQ: CNFR]. Concurrently, AM Best has downgraded the Financial Strength Rating to B+ (Good) from B++ (Good) and the Long-Term ICR to “bbb-” (Good) from “bbb” (Good) of Conifer Insurance Company (CIC) and White Pine Insurance Company (White Pine). CIC and White Pine are subsidiaries of CHI, a publicly traded property/casualty insurance holding company. The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. All companies are domiciled in Birmingham, MI. Collectively, these companies are referred to as Conifer Insurance Group (the group or Conifer).
The ratings reflect the group’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as adequate, as well as its marginal operating performance, neutral business profile and marginal enterprise risk management (ERM). “
I owned for about 3 months in 2019, managed one nice flip and then decided it was more dicey than I had expected… Been watching ever since, particularly for signs of the turnaround the brothers are always talking about… Every move they make seems to be met with another obstacle they didn’t think about, so I’ve stayed out… I second your opinion, they should fire themselves and hire somebody else… Maybe one of their kids’ babysitters is available for consideration.