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January 2010
US insurer Chubb Corporation posted a third straight quarter of profit, up 71% in the fourth quarter as investment gains rose in value.
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XL plans to redomicile to Ireland and the remaining Lloyd’s players headquartered in the UK are also considering leaving. We ask why firms are looking to move and to where.
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Genworth Financial has recorded a fourth-quarter profit of $40m.
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A catastrophe bond to provide The Hartford with protection against east and Gulf Coast US hurricanes has been completed.
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Zurich has expanded its North American commercial energy casualty business unit with the two appointments.
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Farmers Insurance Group has appointed Dan Schrock as vice-president of expansion markets.
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US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his predecessor, Hank Paulson, said they did not bail out AIG to save its derivatives counterparties.
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MetLife has appointed Cheryl Grisé as lead director of the company’s board of directors.
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Travelers’ fourth quarter underwriting performance does not bode will for brokers’ ongoing commissions and organic growth, an analyst at Atlantic Equities has warned.
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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will join the S&P 500 and S&P 100 stock indexes following its acquisition of railroad company Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
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Conseco’s subsidiary, Bankers Life and Casualty, has coinsured 234,000 life insurance policies with Wilton Re, with an effective date of October 1, 2009.
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Florida’s insurance market is in a state of disarray. Uncertainties about the quality, price and availability of property insurance have left homeowners desperately seeking stability, and insurers are struggling to meet demands.
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German reinsurer Hannover Re has securitised more natural catastrophe risk through its K6 transaction.
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A unit of Liberty Mutual has reorganised its US specialty casualty business.
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A federal judge has ordered Lloyd’s of London to pay for the criminal defence costs for Allen Stanford, the founder and chairman of Stanford Financial Group, and two officers in his company accused for their part in a $7bn Ponzi scheme.
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American International Group (AIG) has decided not to sell its aviation unit, International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), just one day after reports claimed its CEO was leaving.
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US insurance broker Arthur J Gallagher & Co reported a net income for the fourth quarter of $19.4m compared with $11.7m in the same period last year.
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US insurer The Travelers Companies has reported net income of $1.29bn for the fourth quarter of 2009, up from $801m in the fourth quarter of 2008.
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Kingsway Financial Services is selling its Jevco Insurance stake to money manager Westaim for about $248.3m.
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Steven Udvar-Házy, the chief executive officer of AIG’s aviation leasing unit, is expected to leave the company as soon as this week reports the Wall Street Journal.
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US insurer AIG has restricted the personal use of its company planes for all executive officers apart from its chief executive officer Robert Benmosche, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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The US bond insurance market faces an uncertain future, while there are few prospects for a revival of the industry, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has said in a new report.
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Last year was one of the least active of the decade for M&A of US insurance brokers and the first year that the number of M&A deals dipped below 200 since 2003, according to Hales & Company.
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Willis North America has promoted Alastair Swift to chief placement officer.
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New York’s Insurance Department will prioritise making the city a place where insurance companies want to do business by launching the New York insurance exchange, said James Wrynn, the department’s superintendent, at a Reactions US Business Club held in New York last week.
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Chartis Insurance, the general insurance unit of American International Group, is selling the US passenger plane that made an emergency landing on New York’s Hudson River last January.
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Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America has named Ross Bowen as the vice-president of profitability management.
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Warren Buffett has admitted that the settlement General Re reached with the SEC for its role in finite reinsurance deals with American International and Prudential Financial is appropriate.
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Low demand continued to put pressure on US rates as carriers competed for new business, according to The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers’ quarterly Commercial P/C Market Index Survey.
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A New York judge Wednesday dismissed criminal charges against former Marsh & McLennan Companies and Zurich Financial Services executives who pleaded guilty to charges in connection with an insurance bid-rigging investigation.
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Willis Group has renewed the contract of its chairman and CEO, Joseph Plumeri. He will stay on at global insurance broker until July 7, 2013.
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Symetra Financial Corporation sold 30.4 million shares on the New York Stock exchange at $12.70 yesterday, raising $364.8m. Symetra had said in October it hoped the IPO's size would hit $575m.
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White Mountains Re announced today that it intends to acquire Central National Insurance Company of Omaha from Drum Financial Corporation.
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US specialty insurer Assurant has entered into a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that concludes the SEC’s finite reinsurance investigation of the firm.
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A series of powerful winter storms have struck southern California between January 17 and January 20, bringing heavy rainfall and high winds that have caused road flooding, evacuations and property damage, RMS/Reactions Catastrophe Centre reports.
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Guy Carpenter has estimated that the southeast US will experience an above average rate of landfalling tropical cyclones in the coming year.
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Risk Management Solutions has launched a new parametric index for estimating insured industry losses from US earthquakes.
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Economic turmoil drove a surge in securities lawsuit filings in 2009, according to a new report from Advisen.
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Validus Holdings, the Bermudian reinsurer and insurer, has issued $250m of senior bonds according to IFR, the Thompson Reuters service.
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Global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings has extended the contract of its chairman and CEO, Joe Plumeri.
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MetLife’s rumoured deal for AIG’s Alico subsidiary would be a good deal for the US life insurance firm, according to an equity analyst.
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President Barack Obama’s plans for healthcare reform were thrown into jeopardy last night after the Republicans scored a political upset by winning Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts.
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US brokerage firm Marsh & McLennan Companies announced today that it has elected Edward Hanway as a director.
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General Re, the reinsurer owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has agreed to pay more than $60m to end an investigation into its role in a fraud at American International Group, Bloomberg reports.
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Recent analysis of near-term US hurricane models has found that models for the cumulative seasons from 2006 to 2009 have greatly overestimated losses.
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Zenith Insurance, an insurance subsidiary of Zenith National Insurance, has appointed Judge Pamela Foust.
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AIG is looking to reduce and bring forward the payment of retention bonuses at its financial products division, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has called for comprehensive review of the AIG bailout by the US Government Accountability Office.
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Chartis, the general insurance unit of American International Group, has named ex-Validus executive Samir Shah senior vice-president and chief risk officer.
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MetLife is in final negotiations to buy AIG's biggest life unit, Alico, for between $14bn and $15bn, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
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US specialty insurer RLI has entered into a two-year agreement to become a quota share reinsurer of Producers Agricultural Insurance Company, known as ProAg, based in Amarillo, Texas.
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Ambac Assurance may owe as much as $1.2bn after Las Vegas Monorail filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Bloomberg reports.
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Out of the pieces of legislation facing the industry this year, it was “too big to fail” which received the most attention at the annual Property/Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum held in New York this week.
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The US property/casualty industry faces serious challenges in 2010, according to Ernst & Young’s Global Insurance Centre 2010 US P/C Insurance Industry Outlook.
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Small insurers retain a decent market share of the overall US property-casualty market and have strong positions within certain niches, according to a new study by Conning Research & Consulting.
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The US insurance industry must act with a unified voice to improve the industry’s reputation, concludes a McKinsey & Company report, Building a Talent Magnet.
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Insurance and reinsurance company Ace Group has announced the appointment of John Lupica to chief operating officer, insurance for North America.
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The property/casualty insurance unit of wholesale insurance broker Crump Group is making key management changes.
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US insurer The Hartford could pay off its loan from the US government by the end of the year, says an analyst. The firm this week pre-announced fourth-quarter operating earnings per share of $1.45 to $1.65.
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An upcoming cat bond that will cover US insurer The Hartford against US hurricane risk has been rated by S&P.
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Bermudian insurer Ironshore has announced that its specialty healthcare division, IronHealth, has entered into a collaborative agreement with Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty.
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A recent lawsuit against 14 insurance companies could be the start of a trend in Chinese drywall legal action.
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The New York Insurance Association has filed a lawsuit to stop what it claims is New York state’s illegal diversion of insurance assessments to fund non-insurance programmes.
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Frank O’Halloran, CEO of Australian insurer QBE Insurance Group, has been announced as the 2010 Insurance Hall of Fame winner.
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Read a selection of stories from the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Reactions.
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XL Insurance today announced the expansion of its US aviation underwriting team with the opening of an aviation branch office in San Francisco and an addition to its New York-based underwriting staff.
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Michael McGavick, chief executive officer of XL, wants to move his firm’s holding company to Ireland because of the stability the country offers, he has told Reactions.
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An $825m collateral transaction for ING Insurance has reopened the Regulation XXX securitisation market.
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Thomas Scherer has been named senior vice-president and general counsel for Chartis, the general insurance operations of American International Group.
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Reactions canvassed executive search firms worldwide to produce a list of who they believe will be the top leaders of the future. Here are the names they came up with.
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US property-casualty insurer Zenith National Insurance has appointed Janet Frank as an executive vice-president.
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International brokerage Arthur J Gallagher & Co today announced that Scott Hudson has joined its property/casually subsidiary, Gallagher Bassett Services, as its president and chief executive officer.
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US insurer AIG has asked Thomas Russo, a former top lawyer at Lehman Brothers, to be its next general counsel, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Hank Greenberg has questioned the role of investment bank Goldman Sachs in the collapse of AIG.
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The US life insurance industry will likely face an extended period of weak earnings, slow growth and greater regulatory oversight as the economy slowly recovers from the financial crisis, according to Ernst & Young.
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The mixed reinsurance rating environment is a disappointment against last years’ expectations says Bermudian reinsurer Aspen Re.
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Markel’s approach to investments cost the firm millions in 2008. Reactions asked its vice-chairman Tony Markel whether this has heralded a change at the firm.
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Lack of quality, consistency and transparency in financial reporting could hurt insurance companies by creating uncertainty about their financial condition and business drivers, according to a PWC report.
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The fourth quarter saw a big fall in cat bond spreads, according to a report issued today by reinsurance broker Aon Benfield. This trend was especially seen in the US wind and multi-peril sectors, which decreased by 36% and 26% respectively on a non-seasonal adjusted basis.
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Predicting the future direction of the market is not a simple exercise. In today’s climate it is a genuine challenge. Nevertheless, a number of events and recent judicial developments are helpful indicators.
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QBE Regional Insurance, the US property/casualty specialty insurance company, has named Andy Doll as commercial lines senior vice-president.
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The excess and surplus lines business segment of Argo Group International Holdings has announced the appointment of Michael Denton as senior vice-president of its specialty property department.
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Bermudian reinsurer Harbor Point has announced that its affiliate, New Point Re is continuing to offer collateralised retrocessional reinsurance coverage for contracts taken up from January 1 2010 onwards.
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The Hartford Financial Services Group has appointed Liam McGee president of the company, in addition to his roles as chairman and chief executive officer.
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The catastrophe bond market recovered in 2009, with issuance returning to the pre-crisis levels, says Munich Re in a briefing.
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The US state of Vermont licensed 39 new captive insurance companies in 2009, nearing it closer to a 900-licence milestone, according to data released by the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration.
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A division of AIG is required to pay more than $517m of reinsurance to five workers’ compensation insurers in liquidation.
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After the announcement that US Risk Insurance Group has expanded into the specialty reinsurance brokerage marketplace, Reactions quizzed Randall Goss, chairman and chief executive officer of US Risk Insurance Group about his intentions for 2010.
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Last year saw the most active fourth quarter ever for catastrophe bond issuance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) activity looks set to remain high in 2010 as a record volume of catastrophe bonds mature, according to risk modelling firm RMS.
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MetLife Global Funding I, a unit of MetLife, has raised $2.5bn in a two-part note sale.
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David Paterson, the New York state governor, today vowed to revive the New York insurance exchange.
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Members of the Guy Carpenter Global Reinsurance Composite saw their total net income more than double to almost $10bn in the first nine months of 2009, according to a Guy Carpenter briefing.
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Symetra Financial, a life insurer owned by an investor group led by Berkshire Hathaway and White Mountains Insurance Group, has disclosed terms for an initial public offering that would mean the life insurer raises less money than it initially hoped.
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XL Insurance, the global insurance unit of XL Capital, has signed an underwriting agreement with Dentists National Insurance of Coral Springs, Florida.
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Zurich has named Doug Bergen as south-west US regional property manager. Bergen will join Zurich’s Global Corporate in North America business unit and will be based in the Glendale, California office.
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Insurance and reinsurance group Ace expects its operating income per share to be between $6.25 and $6.75 for 2010.
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The role of an actuary has been ranked as the best job for 2010 by the online job site CareerCast.
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A private investor group, in which equity investors Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is the lead sponsor, has entered into an agreement to acquire AIG's Canadian mortgage insurance business.
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Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of UK insurer Aviva, has agreed to buy 100% of River Road Asset Management, a US equity manager, as a part of its North American strategy.
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A subsidiary of Brown & Brown Insurance has acquired the assets of San Antonio, Texas-based Alamo Insurance.
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US insurance broker Brown & Brown has announced Jim Henderson, its vice-chairman and chief operating officer and a member of its board of directors, will retire in August of this year.
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HCC Insurance Holdings has named Frank Ahlborn as vice-president and treasurer. He will report to Tobin Whamond, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of HCC.
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Reinsurance Group of America has concluded the acquisition of some of ReliaStar Life Insurance’s businesses.
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Swiss Re, the world’s second-largest reinsurer, has completed a $150m catastrophe bond deal to protect it against Californian earthquake risk.
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Last year finished with a pattern of US rate decreases not dissimmilar to that for most of the year, with the property/casualty composite rate index for December down 4%, according to online exchange MarketScout.
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American International Group is planning to use stock units matching the value of its common stock to pay the 2009 stock salary grants to executives, Reuters reports.
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Prolonged lower investment income will likely cause US property/casualty insurers to focus on improved underwriting, according to an AM Best report.
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Privately owned reinsurance broker Lockton Re has expanded its presence in the US with the appointments of three new executives at its offices in New York and Kansas City.
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US-based consultancy company Watson Wyatt completed its merger with rival Towers Perrin to form a combined company called Towers Watson & Co that will make its US listing debut on Monday.