About a third of the staff at Tokio Millennium Re’s Bermuda operation will be let go after the company’s takeover by RenaissanceRe Holdings.

About two-thirds of the 69 employees have been offered new deals or transition opportunities, RenRe said yesterday.

“Starting this week, we began communicating with employees of Tokio Millennium Re about our intentions regarding personnel once our acquisition closes,” RenRe stated in response to our questions.

“In Bermuda, we extended offers of full-time employment or meaningful transitional roles to just over two-thirds of the organisation. Additionally there are a number of open positions at RenaissanceRe available for TMR staff to apply.

“We placed a hold on hiring new positions immediately following the announcement of the deal to make available as many roles as possible. Mergers and acquisitions frequently create overlaps in roles and functions, and RenaissanceRe and TMR are both reinsurance-focused organisations. We undertook a thoughtful process to arrive at our personnel decisions, and our analysis has focused on identifying redundancies and planning for the needs of the combined organisation.

“This has only furthered our appreciation of the excellent franchise TMR has built, and everyone at RenaissanceRe is looking forward to welcoming our new colleagues once the transaction closes.

“Our combined company will be a larger, more diversified global reinsurer with broader reach and extended capacity to serve clients worldwide, while grounded in our Bermuda roots and committed to our island home.”

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year.

TMR, which is headquartered in Switzerland, has a branch office in Bermuda, based at offices in Chesney House on Pitts Bay Road.

RenRe said at the time the deal was announced that it expected to achieve “material synergies” within the first two years — language that normally refers to cost reductions.

It is understood that some of the positions made redundant were in Tokio Solution Management Ltd, TMR’s Bermudian-based fronting and third-party capital management unit.

Kevin O’Donnell, RenRe’s chief executive officer, made clear in last October’s third-quarter earnings conference call with analysts that this part of the business was not a good fit for RenRe.

Mr O’Donnell said at the time: “The transaction includes TMR’s fronting business, which is a very different business than our third-party ventures business.”

Lovitta Foggo, the labour minister, said last night that the Department of Workforce Development was ready to help those made redundant with the offer of services including resume development, interview preparation, career guidance, sponsorship and funding for retraining, assistance with obtaining professional credential, networking and job search assistance.

Ms Foggo said, “Although this acquisition may create avenues for new job opportunities for some, I remain extremely sympathetic to those experiencing redundancy or career disruption and the anxieties that they and their families might be feeling.”