BF&M Ltd. yesterday acquired 352,279 shares from the Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company Limited (in liquidation), all of which it subsequently cancelled.

BF&M will follow yesterday?s action by acquiring a further 352,279 shares from BFMIC on December 31 this year and 352,038 shares on December 31, 2006.

John Wight, President & CEO of BF&M Limited said in a letter to the BSX yesterday that the total purchase amounting to 1,056,596 shares will effectively end any BFMIC ownership in the company resulting from a 1991 transaction.

?When BF&M Limited acquired BF&M General Insurance Company Limited, BF&M Life Insurance Company Limited and various other companies from BFMIC in 1991, part of the purchase price consideration was 1,000,000 convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares. The preference shares still held by BFMIC in 2002 were then converted to common shares when the company exercised its conversion rights to convert all BF&M preference shares to common shares,? said Mr. Wight.

He added that BF&M is in a ?very strong financial position? and the company was able to acquire the shares through surplus funds generated through normal operations of the BF&M Insurance Group.

The price to be paid by BF&M for each tranche will be calculated as ten percent above the weighted average closing price of the shares of the company traded on the Bermuda Stock Exchange over the period one hundred and eighty days immediately prior to the value date. The value date will be seven days prior to the tranche date sale date for which the sale price is to be determined. The price to be used in the calculation of the purchase price for the December 31, 2005 and December 31, 2006 transactions shall be no less than the weighted average closing price for the shares as calculated with effect January 31, 2005.