industry's first concerted marketing campaign in Europe do not expect to reap the rewards of their labours for at least a year.

Mr. Thomas Dickson, senior vice president of Centre Re, the world's largest financial reinsurer, said it was difficult to gauge the success of the four-country tour until new business started coming in as a result.

"It's going to take between a year and 18 months before we start seeing a good flow of business from this,'' he said. "But the initial feelings among our group are that everyone thought it was a very positive trip. I expect we will see some significant business.'' The marketing effort was organised by broker Johnson & Higgins and came as a result of the enormous growth in capacity and insurance products in Bermuda over the past 18 months.

Ten senior insurance industry officials from Bermuda and London made the trip, including Mr. John Goldberg, of J&H (Bermuda); Mr. Robert Cooney, of XL, Mr.

Larry Lombardo and Mr. William Loschert, of ACE; Mr. Jon King, of OIL and OCIL; and Mr. Dickson.

Presentations were made in English to clients and brokers in Frankfurt, London, Paris and Milan.

The briefings focused on how certain losses have penetrated high layers of insurance. They also aimed to show how the Bermuda market can be easily integrated into existing insurance programmes to provide expanded capacity at an affordable cost.

Mr. Dickson said: "It went very, very well. We received a good reception and had up to 25/30 clients and brokers at each location.

"There were some people there who had done business before with Bermuda companies and who knew the market very well. There were others who probably did not know what Bermuda has to offer.'' Major companies attending included Air France, Elf Aquitaine, Renault, Hoechst and British Gas.