announced the date of the big vote on the pending Frontier merger.

Shareholders are invited to the annual meeting from 10 a.m. at St. Regis Hotel in New York City on September 22.

The company has filed a registration statement containing the prospectus which shareholders of both Global Crossing and Frontier should be finding in their mailbox soon. Holders of almost 80 percent of the outstanding shares have agreed to vote in favour of the merger, according to the company's research.

And corporate insiders, including board members and senior management, have agreed not to sell their shares before the merger closes. Upstart company Global Crossing is on track to build and operate the world's first global undersea Internet protocol-based fibre optic network for data, voice and Internet transmissions.

Once complete it will span five continents. The company's chiefs hope it will address 80 percent of the world's international telecommunications traffic.

RENAISSANCE RATES FALL BUC Reinsurance rates fall Reinsurance rates continue to tumble despite record catastrophe losses last year according to an article by rating agency A.M. Best. The agency reported that rates for catastrophe reinsurance remain in a nine-year decline, having fallen another 2.3 percent last year.

The 1999 rates represent a 34 percent drop since rates peaked in July 1994. A study by a E.W. Blanch Holdings subsidiary shows that rates have fallen every six months for the past five years. To counter the soft pricing some companies have responded by creating products to address non-traditional risks such as earnings volatility. The article appeared in Best's Review and is available on the Internet at www.bestreview.com/sup.