Lengthy Prudential IPO Plan Gets Pricey

Prudential Insurance Co. of America has spent more than $200 million on its plan to convert itself into a stockholder-owned company and that is only the beginning. The Newark-based company could potentially wrack up the biggest total bill for an insurance company conversion ever.

In the first nine months of 2000, Prudential spent $113 million, before taxes, on its conversion, which will distribute stock to the 12 million policyholders who now own the company, up nearly 50 percent from the the $75 million it spent for all of 1999.

The company spent $24 million in 1998 when the process started. By comparison, MetLife Inc.’s conversion last spring cost $229 million, while John Hancock Financial Services spent $105 million on its smaller conversion. Both companies had fewer eligible policyholders than Prudential.