Definity Financial Corp., the property and casualty insurer formerly known as Economical Mutual Insurance Co., raised about $1.4 billion (US$1.1 billion) in the largest Canadian initial public offering of the year.

A total of 63.6 million shares were sold for $22 apiece, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said in a release late Wednesday, the top end of the range it had targeted. The company is also selling another $700 million in shares in a private placement to the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and Swiss Re.

Definity’s offering is the third-largest IPO of a Canadian company in the past five years and a rare new offering from a financial firm in a year dominated by technology deals.

The insurer’s offering also completes its six-year march toward public markets that follows a similar path to the one Manulife Financial Corp. and Sun Life Financial Inc., Canada’s two largest life-insurance companies, took two decades ago. Those companies, like Definity, transitioned from mutual insurers, owned by policyholders, to shareholder-owned public companies…read more.

Shares of Rivian Automotive soared more than 26% on Wednesday, after the electric vehicle start-up made its market debut in one of the biggest IPOs this year.

Rivian priced its shares at $78 a piece Tuesday night, above its range of $72 and $74. The stock began trading at $106.75 per share, giving the company a market valuation of $91 billion. At that level, Rivian is already worth more than traditional auto makers Ford ($77 billion) and General Motors ($87 billion).

The stock trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol RIVN.

Rivian, which is backed by Amazon and Ford, has attracted intense interest from investors looking to capitalize on the fast-growing EV market. But the company has yet to establish a business model and expects no more than $1 million in revenue for the third quarter…read more.

Cenovus Energy Inc. is rewarding patient shareholders as surging cash flow puts the oil and gas producer on track to hit its debt target.

In a release early Wednesday, Cenovus announced it will double its quarterly dividend to 3.5 cents per share as of the fourth quarter, and said its board also approved a plan to repurchase up to 10 per cent of its common shares.

It’s equipped to do so after higher oil prices and a 71 per cent year-over-year increase in production helped push the company’s cash from operating activities to $2.14 billion, up 192 per cent from a year earlier when $732 million was generated.

In the release, Cenovus said it’s poised to achieve its target of sub-$10 billion in net debt “imminently.”

“Our free funds flow capacity will support swiftly advancing toward our longer-term net debt target of less than $8 billion, while balancing growth in shareholder returns,” said Cenovus President and Chief Executive Officer Alex Pourbaix in a release…read more.

Elon Musk said he’d sell Tesla stock and donate the proceeds if the UN could prove that just a tiny percentage of his wealth could save tens of millions of lives.

Musk was responding to comments by David Beasley, the director of the UN’s World Food Programme, who told CNN’s “Connect the World” last week that a $6 billion donation from billionaires such as Musk and Jeff Bezos could help 42 million people who he said were “literally going to die if we don’t reach them.”

Musk is the world’s richest man and recently became the first person in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ever to have an estimated net worth north of $300 billion.

The index currently lists the Tesla CEO’s net worth at $311 billion, meaning $6 billion would be 2% of his wealth. Such a donation would still leave him besting the world’s second-richest person, Bezos, by at least $100 billion. Both men’s net worth consists largely of stock in companies they founded…read more.