The plan by RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. founding institutional investors to sell about three million common shares they hold in the Bermuda-based company will reduce their controlling interest to about the upper 50 percent range from 71.4 percent.

"The sale is expected to add liquidity in the market and broaden the shareholder base,'' RenaissanceRe Chief Financial Officer Keith Hynes said in an interview. The proposed sale is part of a series selling off of shares by the founding investors since the company began operations in 1993. Then, the founders owned 95 percent of the company, while management owned the rest of the shares.

The major players planning to sell shares are New York based money manager Warburg, Pincus & Co., affiliates of General Electric, and insurer United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co.

The companies sold three million shares in February 1995. A $100 million share repurchase by RenaissanceRe completed in January this year resulted in the cancellation of 813,190 shares. The founding institutions received about $72 million for their shares from the repurchase.

The proposed sale is being registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by RenaissanceRe.