The Lindner family and Great American Insurance are known for being tight-lipped about their investments in private companies, but one of their investments was recently disclosed in a regulatory filing submitted by a local company eyeing an IPO.
Downtown-based Great American Insurance Co., the primary subsidiary of publicly traded American Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: AFG), is an investor in Blue Water Vaccines Inc. according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Downtown-based Blue Water is developing a universal flu vaccine.
Great American also is considering buying as much as $1.5 million more stock in Blue Water in the initial public offering, according to Blue Water’s SEC filing.
"One of our existing stockholders and its affiliated entities, Great American Insurance Company, has indicated an interest in purchasing an aggregate of up to approximately $1.5 million worth of common stock in this offering at the initial public offering price," Blue Water said in the filing.
Great American already owns about 400,000 shares of Blue Water, based on information in the SEC filing.
It will own 5.1% of Blue Water’s stock after the IPO if it follows through on its level of interest, Blue Water said in the SEC filing.
Neither Great American nor Blue Water officials could be reached to comment for this story.
American Financial co-CEO Carl Lindner III has told me in the past he doesn't discuss private company investments. Lindner, his brother, co-CEO Craig Lindner and their family own nearly 20% of American Financial.
Blue Water filed plans in October for its IPO. It hasn't said when it will complete the deal.
Great American bought 82,000 shares of Blue Water preferred stock in July 2019 for $500,000. Great American Life Insurance bought the same amount at the same price. It’s unclear if that ownership interest has since been transferred to Great American Insurance. American Financial sold Great American Life in May to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., known as MassMutual.
Cincinnati-based startup investor CincyTech owns about 50% of Blue Water through two funds, including Cincinnati Cornerstone Investors. Blue Water CEO Joseph Hernandez owns 37%.
Blue Water plans to raise between $17.8 million and $22 million in its IPO. It said in its SEC filing it plans to offer a little more than 2.2 million shares of at a price somewhere between $8 and$10 a share. The company said it only has cash on hand to fund operations into the second quarter 2022.
As a company that’s still developing a product, Blue Water has not yet generated revenue nor is it profitable. Hernandez founded it in October 2018.
