Post September 11, 2001 start-up Montpelier Re is set to expand its staff by 20 percent this year after reporting record net profits for 2003 last week.

According to Tony Taylor, the company?s president and chief executive officer, the company has 45 staff at the moment in Bermuda and expects to have about 55 by year end.

?We are bulking up the staff,? said Mr. Taylor, who said he and his company were still totally committed to Bermuda and would not be opening offices around the world.

Mr. Taylor said: ?We run a tight ship. We keep it very simple. We have 45 staff and if you take the company?s profits it works out at $10 million per person for last year ? and that includes the receptionist.?

And Bermudians are interested in the vacant posts, with over 40 of them for two junior underwriting posts recently advertised.

On Thursday Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd. reported net income of $407.1 million with management attributing the success of its second full year of operations to a focused business plan, its underwriters, modelling techniques and high standards of service.

For the fourth quarter of 2003 the company reported net income of $99.9 million or $1.46 diluted earnings per share and net income of $407.1 million, or $6.05 diluted earnings per share, for 2003.

?We have had a very satisfactory quarter,? said Mr. Taylor. ?Overall for the year we have a very acceptable combined ratio of 50.3 percent and a return on equity, including our first dividend, of 30.3 percent.?

And he reported that the company had a good January renewals season, with reinsurance, on a like for like basis, up 23 percent on the previous year and premiums up 11 percent. The company?s insurance sector (property), however, remained flat.

?It was a pretty good renewals season,? he said.

?For us this was a very active season with increased offerings particularly on the international property account, especially in Europe and also the property retro areas.?

And he added that they had been very busy during the renewals season, working flat out. Between 40 and 45 percent of Montpelier?s business is renewed in January, with the rest spread between April and July during the year.

?The supposed three month renewal season was condensed into a frenetic period of 20 days in the last half of December and the first week of January. Why our industry operates this way is beyond me.?

He added that all classes of reinsurance increased the item account for the 2004 rolling book. ?Overall, excluding the Lloyds QQS business written in 2003 year of account, the gross written premium for 2004 exceeds 2003 at the same time by 29 percent. ?

And he said that there were many factors which would influence the development of their 2004 premium income during the next 11 months, ?but given our strong performance in the major renewal period at January 1, I feel reasonably confident that our top line premium for 2004 will exceed 2003, including its QQS element, but I would stress not by 23 percent.?

He said that growth was due to number of factors including rapid constructive responses from their underwriting teams to brokers and their enhanced ratings by the agencies.

He said also added to the mix was the acceptance by the market that Montpelier as a leading long term operation with a ?very strong? capital to premium ratio and advanced modelling capabilities.

And he pointed to their growing underwriting team and planned growth in the casualty account as well as marketing on the international account.

?Many of these factors have combined to yield us larger line sizes on existing programmes, improved signing percentages and access to a greater number of our originally targeted key clients.?

Mr. Taylor added: ?Montpelier is increasingly recognised as a key player in the reinsurance market and this has manifested itself in both increased showings of business on all classes in the January, 2004 renewal season and an increase in our average line size.?

Tom Kemp, chief financial officer said that throughout 2003 Montpelier had produced extremely consistent, high quality results in terms of both combined ratio and return on equity.

Mr. Kemp added: ?We are particularly pleased with the results in our non-catastrophe property and other specialty classes which have performed exceptionally well throughout the year. Our property catastrophe portfolio has also produced very good results, despite a considerable level of loss activity in the industry, most notably in the second half of the year.?