Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings Limited announced yesterday that it has changed its name to AlphaStar Insurance Group Limited, effective immediately. The symbol for the company's ordinary shares, which trade on the NASDAQ “Small Cap” market, has also been changed, to “ASIG,” effective yesterday.

The company reported that its board of directors had decided that a change of name would enable the company and its subsidiaries to make a cleaner break from a past in which reinsurance disputes created image issues that unfairly burdened the group's ongoing operations. Also, given the extensive re-engineering that has been implemented throughout the organisation, the board felt that a new name would appropriately reflect the creation of what is essentially an entirely new company.

Stephen A. Crane, chairman, president & CEO of AlphaStar, said: “In astronomy, the alpha star is the largest or brightest star in a constellation. Although the group still faces significant challenges, we hope to live up to our new name by using our assets intelligently to create value for shareholders.”