The largest insurance company to set up in Bermuda this year, Quanta, has found a new home in Hamilton for its staff.

The company, which has over $500 million in capital, announced yesterday that Quanta Capital Holdings Ltd. had moved its corporate headquarters to Cumberland House in Victoria Street, Hamilton.

The company already has about 230 staff worldwide of which about ten are based in Bermuda full time, but a spokesperson for Quanta said that at the new Victoria Street headquarters, the Bermuda office had plenty of room to expand.

Quanta Holdings is a Bermuda specialty insurance and reinsurance holding company. It owns Quanta Reinsurance Ltd. which incorporated on 6 June, 2003 as a class 4 insurer.

Class four insurers, as the largest class of insurance company in Bermuda, must maintain minimum capital and surplus of $100 million.

In a Press release, Michael Murphy, Quanta?s chief operating officer, said: ?The relocation of our headquarters here in Bermuda represents yet another exciting step in building Quanta?s operational infrastructure. We are pleased to note that our new offices are well suited to accommodate the company?s planned growth.?

The company had been running its Bermuda operations from temporary quarters at 44 Church Street, the office of IAS Park, which was said to be providing management services on the accounting and administrative side, to Quanta.

Quanta, which was the only reinsurer of its size to incorporate this year ? compared to the new wave of class four companies which set up in late 2001 and through 2002.

The company in September completed the private placement deal which brought in net proceeds of $505 million.

The company has had a rocky start to its young life ? its initial incorporation was short lived. Bermuda Monetary Authority records show that after Quanta was set up it then was voluntarily wound up.

But the company once again incorporated in Bermuda under the same name ? Quanta Reinsurance Ltd. ? on August 15, 2003.

In October reported that staff were being sued by their former employer, CNA Financial Corp., for the alleged use of company secrets to help in the set-up of the company they now work for.

The four were named as John Van Decker, John Lopes, Anthony Codding and Cathy Cossu and were formerly mid-level executives with Chicago-based CNA but reportedly jumped ship to work for start-up.

The suit, which was brought in the US, is not against Quanta and legal counsel for the company staff dismissed the action as being ?without merit?. The company did have some brighter news in October when it said it had officially opened its New York offices in Rockefeller Plaza, which added to the offices set up not only in Bermuda but also in the UK and Ireland.

The US office will manage Quanta?s professional liability, environmental liability, surety, fidelity and crime, marine and aviation and structured products insurance lines.

The company?s rapid growth has been possible, at least in part, through several strategic acquisitions including its September purchase of Environmental Strategies Corporation, a full-service environmental engineering, remediation risk management and consulting firm.

The ESC is the platform for Quanta?s technical expertise in environmental insurance and will continue to provide risk evaluation services to its underwriters and to third parties.

Although relatively little is known about Quanta?s management, the company has confirmed that at least two of its senior executives would be based in Bermuda. Quanta CEO Tobey Russ is to be based here as well as David Whiting, who has been named president of Quanta Reinsurance Ltd.

Mr. Whiting, who is a veteran of the Bermuda insurance market, will be responsible for the executive management of Quanta Reinsurance Ltd. and any of its Bermuda-domiciled subsidiaries.

Mr. Whiting was most recently with the Bermuda office of Swiss Re. He spent ten years with the company and before joining Quanta held a senior management position. Previously, Mr. Whiting held positions with the Zurich Insurance Group, Toronto, Canada; the Hartford Insurance Group, Hartford, Connecticut; and in Bermuda with Tillinghast and Centre Re.