Reinsurer Conduit saw its shares rise 5% on its London market debut after pricing an 826 million pound ($1.1 billion) initial public offering (IPO) earlier on Wednesday.

The company sold 164.13 million shares at 500 pence per share, it said earlier in the day. By 1100 GMT, they had risen to 526 pence.

Conduit is a newly established business to be headed by Neil Eckert, founder of insurance and reinsurance firm Brit Insurance which was acquired by Fairfax in 2015, and Trevor Carvey, a former Markel underwriting executive.

Insurers and reinsurers have faced hefty claims in relation to the coronavirus pandemic.

But this has also encouraged new and returning players into the market, who can capitalise on rising premium rates without the burden of existing loss-making business lines.

“I am excited to lead a legacy-free business into these exceptional market conditions,” Carvey said in a statement on Wednesday.

The London IPO market has opened up a bit since the summer after a barren first half of the year on the back of the COVID-19 crisis, and investors have capital to put to work.

A source familiar with the Conduit transaction said the deal had been driven overwhelmingly by British institutional demand.

“This isn’t something investors can easily access on the market. The returns and the exposure to uncorrelated structural growth helped drive demand,” he said, referring to the fact that insurance returns are relatively unaffected by global economic conditions and interest rates.

Jefferies and Panmure Gordon were joint bookrunners on the deal.

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