CHICAGO, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- EVEREN Capital Corporation (NYSE: EVR)
today announced the sale of 4 million shares of its common stock at a price of
$18.50 per share in an initial public offering.  EVEREN has granted the
underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional 600,000 shares to cover
over-allotments.  The offering involves only newly issued shares offered and
sold by the company.  No secondary shares are included and there are no
selling shareholders.
    Following the offering, approximately 15.7 million shares of EVEREN
Capital Corporation common stock will be outstanding, and EVEREN employees and
management will continue to own approximately 75 percent of the company's
common stock.  The common stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
    According to James R. Boris, EVEREN's chairman and chief executive
officer, the principal purpose of the offering is to increase EVEREN's equity
capital and facilitate its access to the public capital markets.
Approximately $36 million of the net proceeds to be received from the sale of
common stock will be used to repay certain bank debt.  The remaining proceeds
will be used for general corporate purposes, including potential future
acquisitions.
    EVEREN Securities, Inc., Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated and Lehman
Brothers Inc. manage the underwriting group for the offering.  Of the 4
million shares, 3.2 million will be included in a U.S. offering, and the other
800,000 shares will be included in an international offering managed by the
same firms.
    Headquartered in Chicago, EVEREN Capital Corporation is the 20th largest
majority employee-owned firm in the nation.  EVEREN Capital is the parent
company of EVEREN Securities, Inc., a full-service securities brokerage firm
with 138 offices in 27 states, and EVEREN Clearing Corp., which provides
securities execution and clearing services and commodities clearing services
for EVEREN Securities and other broker-dealers.
    This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the
solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these
securities in any State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be
unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities law of
any such State.  A copy of the prospectus can be obtained from Morgan
Stanley & Co. Incorporated, 1585 Broadway, New York, New York 10036-8293,
EVEREN Securities, Inc., 77 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60601-1694 or
Lehman Brothers Inc., 3 World Financial Center, New York, New York 10285.

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