June 27 (Reuters) - LandBridge ( LB ), a landowner in the

oil-rich Permian Basin in the United States, set the pricing of

its initial public offering (IPO) at $17 per share to raise

around $246.5 million, it said on Thursday.

The Houston, Texas-based company priced its IPO below its

previous target range of $19-$22, valuing it at around $1.2

billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filing

with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The firm will debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday

under the symbol "LB".

Landbridge ( LB ), backed by private equity firm Five Point Energy,

owns about 220,000 surface acres in the basin that it can lease

to oil and natural gas producers. It also sells resources

extracted from its land.

The company says this business model, which largely depends

on fee-based contracts, reduces its susceptibility to volatility

in commodity prices at a time when geopolitical and other risks

have cast a shadow on oil demand.

Public markets in the U.S. have seen an influx of IPOs in

the last few months after a nearly two-year dry spell, as

expectations of a soft landing for the economy encourage

companies to list their shares.

Goldman Sachs and Barclays are the lead underwriters for the

IPO.

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane

Venkatraman

)