time since it opened for business about a year ago.

And FBS intends soon to swallow its own advice and list the company on the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

"I think soon it will be the most exciting stock in Bermuda,'' FSB president Mr. Jeff Conyers said.

Mr. Conyers and FBS vice president Mr. Michael Schroter said FBS had stopped losing money during the last quarter of 1992.

Mr. Schroter said: "1992 was basically a year in which we concentrated mainly on marketing.

"But, for the first time, over October, November and December we had a scenario where we at least broke even or made a profit.'' Both men were extremely optimistic about FBS' earnings potential.

"Any new business in Bermuda has to go through a credibility crisis first before it can grow. People tend to sit on the fence at first and watch what happens,Mr. Conyers said.

"We really feel that, over the last three months, we have kind of turned a corner and all the things we did right in the first nine months are finally coming home to roost.

"Our big problem now is going to be managing growth. It almost becomes a different company,'' he said.

When FBS first opened to the public just over a year ago, it had expected much of its income to come from asset management and broking commissions from Bermuda's international insurance industries.

But this side of the business has produced virtually no revenue at all.

"Insurance companies are very conservative institutions and they are wary of dealing with a new entity,'' said Mr. Conyers.

"We were too optimistic and we believed we could just walk in and they would sign a deal.'' FBS had more than compensated for this shortfall, though, by above average performances in other areas of its business, particularly corporate finance.

As for going public, Mr. Conyers said FBS needed to wait a while before making its move.

"We don't want to go public too early because that would be bad for the company,'' he said.

"Once we get to the position where we have cash reserves and capital to withstand a couple of bad quarters we will be prepared to go public.

"We will either merely list the stock or actually make an offering to the public.'' The third option would be to do a continuous offer of the company's stock, said Mr. Conyers.

"We would get permission to sell, say, 50,000 shares at, say, $9 a share and that would be the offer of the stock for six months or however long it takes to clear 50,000,'' he added.

"We're going to give it serious consideration prior to the end of this quarter.'' FBS currently has 33 shareholders and almost all of them, with the exception of one, have a relationship with the company, through either being directly employed or being related to someone in the company.

To get the company off the ground, many employees have been paid in equity and/or commissions, rather than hard cash.

FBS has been publicly encouraging more local firms to go public to improve their liquidity.

And it has just announced that its first ever underwriting of a public issue has been fully subscribed.

The $600,000 issue of 15 percent of Long Botham Boats Company, which owns the Henry VIII pub and restaurant, was fully subscribed as of last Friday.

"We're delighted but not surprised,'' said Mr. Conyers. "We were totally confident that the offer would be a success.'' "Henry VIII was the smallest and ACE is a moving target,'' he said. "On top of this, we have two or three local companies who, over the last month, have expressed an interest in going public.''