Bermuda-based insurer Catlin Group Ltd. will follow the example of half a dozen other Island corporations, with news yesterday that an initial share sale is expected next year.

Since October, 2002 half a dozen of Bermuda's newest re/insurance companies - with a wave of start-ups making Bermuda a base after a void in capacity was left in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks - have either gone or said they would go the initial public offering (IPO) route.

Bloomberg News reported yesterday that Catlin, which earlier this year appointed Bermuda insurance veteran Graham Pewter to the post of CEO, hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and UBS AG to manage an IPO that may value the reinsurer at as much as ?800 million ($1.4 billion), people familiar with the situation said.

Founded by chief executive Stephen Catlin, the Bermuda-based company provides property-casualty insurance and reinsurance and underwrote more than $700 million of premiums in 2002, according to its Web site.

Bloomberg said the company plans to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange and that the sale was planned for next year.

“Catlin has a good reputation and has grown very quickly,” said James Quin, an analyst at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. He told Bloomberg: “It's an opportunistic moment to be floating a reinsurance company.”

Mr. Quin said it may be harder to sell shares if premium rates soften starting in 2005, as some analysts expect.

James Burcke, a Catlin spokesman, declined to speak with Bloomberg on the news that it could go public, as did officials at the banks.

Last year, Catlin raised $482 million from private equity investors including Capital Z Financial Services Fund II, The Cypress Group LLC and J.P. Morgan Corsair II Capital Partners.

The company earlier this month said it had applied to the Financial Services Authority to open a UK office for a unit named Catlin Insurance Company Ltd. to underwrite insurance and reinsurance from January in the London market.