Troubled Bermuda insurer Trenwick Group Ltd. has been thrown another lifeline by its investors, who have extended a deadline until Friday for the company to refinance $75 million in senior debt or risk default under a credit facility supporting its underwriting operations.

But the company has also been warned by the New York Stock Exchange that it could be delisted at any time after its stock failed to trade above $1 for more than 30 days.

Trenwick was originally required to refinance its debt by March 1, but the deadline was pushed back to March 14 and now to March 21, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Standard & Poor's Corp. placed Trenwick's CCC- counterparty credit rating under review earlier this month after concluding that the insurer's chances of restructuring the senior debt were "remote".

Trenwick disclosed several other developments in the SEC filing, including that:

Trade magazine Business Insurance reported yesterday that the SEC filing also said Stamford, Connecticut-based Trenwick America Reinsurance Corp.'s risk-based capital ratio fell to the "regulatory action level" as of year-end 2002, and the reinsurer in January presented the Connecticut Insurance Department with a plan to correct the deficiency.

Trenwick America Re stopped underwriting last November and reached a deal to produce business for Chubb Re Inc.; it soon afterward agreed to seek regulators' approval before taking various actions, including disposing of assets, paying dividends or entering reinsurance contracts.

"Another Trenwick unit, Insurance Corp. of New York, meanwhile, saw its risk-based capital fall to the "mandatory control level" at year end, and the New York Insurance Department has ordered Trenwick to submit a plan to cure the subsidiary's capital impairment," Business Insurance reported. Insurance Corp. of New York also stopped writing business last year.