Promina CEO Mike Wilkins must be smiling after his new company floated on the Australian Stock Exchange yesterday afternoon, and immediately attracted a 14.7% premium on the retail float price. It was vindication for his confidence over the past week as AMP dropped a $1.2 billion capital-raising on the market.

Many analysts predicted the AMP decision would cut interest in the Promina offering, but investors applied for at least four times the number of shares available in the $1.9 billion float. In fact, the first-day performance was as good as any of the past 10 years, including Telstra 1.

242 Australian and foreign institutions have forked out $1.80 per share, while about 40,000 private investors picked their shares up for $1.70. The private investors will end up owing about 26%. Mr Wilkins said about half the shares were taken up by investors in Australia and New Zealand.

Acknowledging some analysts’ pessimism, he said: “I think investors recognised the strong and stable Australian and NZ markets… and the favourable position Promina has in the general insurance sectors of those markets.”

Promina will end up with more than 40,000 shareholders, with pre-registered customers guaranteed $5000 worth of the shares. Mr Wilkins says he applied for 500,000 himself at the issue price of $1.70, but he isn’t sure whether he’ll receive the full allocation.

Up to $140 million of the capital raised will be returned to Promina, while the rest will go straight to London into the coffers of its increasingly shaky former parent, Royal & SunAlliance.