Everest Re Group is to move its principal executive office to Bermuda from Barbados.

Elizabeth B. Farrell, vice president, Investor Relations Everest Global Services, Inc., told not to expect fundamental change because of the decision. She said that the company only had a representative office in Barbados and the Bermuda staff roster of around 15 people would not see any expansion.

She said: ?Any expansion we have would be related to our operating company. Fundamentally nothing changes in terms of operation and so any steps like that would not be related to this particular change.?

Ms Farrell said that the decision to change the location of the principal executive office from Barbados to Bermuda, was a cost-savings measure.

?We had moved our executive offices when we originally redomesticated from the US and we set up in Barbados. Some of it was to try to make sure we had our regulatory bases covered. Over time, there really has become no need to maintain two separate offices and with corporate governance being what it is these days and the expense of maintaining the two offices we decided it would be much more sensible to consolidate it into the Bermuda locale.?

Ms Farrell said that the company chose Bermuda over Barbados because the operating company is already set up here.

She said: ?Our major operation offshore is in Bermuda so it just makes sense. That is where we have a number of folks and where we tend to do much of our business so for competitive reasons it makes more sense to put it in Bermuda.?

The company?s Board of Directors also announced an amended share repurchase programme this week, authorising the company and/or its subsidiary, Everest Reinsurance Holdings, Inc. to purchase up to an aggregate of 5,000,000 of the company?s common shares through open market transactions, privately negotiated transactions or both. The timing and amount of the repurchase transactions under this program will depend on market conditions and corporate and regulatory considerations.