Bermuda-based insurer Max Re Capital Ltd. will buy back a further $25 million of its own shares, the company announced on Friday.

Max Re said its board of directors approved the additional share repurchase authorisation of its outstanding common shares, the non-voting common shares of its subsidiary Max Re Ltd., and warrants to acquire either of these securities.

It brings the total authorised repurchases to $65 million.

Max Re also announced that two of its directors had resigned.

Peter J. Rackley, chairman and group executive officer of Western International Financial Group Ltd., is retiring from the Board positions where he has represented Western International Financial Group, Ltd.'s interests.

He will be replaced by John L. Marion, president & managing director of Western General Insurance Ltd.

Glenn Dubin also resigned from Max Re Capital Ltd.'s Board of Directors "to devote his full energies to the management of Highbridge Capital Management, LLC, a global equity arbitrage concern he co-founded in 1992".

He has not yet been replaced.

Max Re will also introduce a fund of funds fee to be paid to Moore Capital Management, Inc. beginning on January 1, 2003, for the investment management services provided to Max Re Diversified Strategies Ltd. ("MDS").

The fee will be 0.7 percent of assets held by MDS in alternative investments funds unaffiliated with Moore Capital Management, Inc., plus 7.5 percent of the return achieved by MDS in excess of ten percent.

Moore had provided the fund of funds service free of charge since Max Re's inception in 1999 and the new fee is a discounted rate, said Max Re chairman and chief executive officer Robert J. Cooney.