Another US-based reinsurer is moving to establish a presence in the Bermuda market.

Everest Re confirmed the news on February 15 but its restructuring plans are still on hold until they are voted in by shareholders, with the vote scheduled for tomorrow.

The company's directors have already approved the restructuring which will see the New Jersey company move its holding company to the Island and create a new reinsurance firm locally which will be capitalised at $250 million.

Everest Re's move to become a Bermuda-parented company follows similar steps by US reinsurers recently.

PXRE relocated its headquarters to Bermuda last July and Trenwick Group is in the process of merging with LaSalle Re.

An article in Insurance Day reported that Everest Re's vice-president for investor relations, James Foster, said the main drive behind the restructuring plan was the company's wish to establish a presence locally.

He told that publication: "The Bermuda market is one of the most significant in the world in the reinsurance business today and we felt we needed to have a presence there.

"We can have a much more efficient financial and tax structure by having our holding company there. It will also improve our competitive positioning both in certain types of business and for acquisitions.'' Everest Re expects its new Bermuda reinsurance subsidiary to be licensed as a Class Four reinsurer which would enable it to write both property catastrophe business and long term, or life, business.

It also plans to write more financial reinsurance from Bermuda, as well as accident and health business.

Provided tomorrow's vote is favourable, the company will then file the appropriate papers enabling the transfer of the holding company to be finalised within days.

Subject to approval, it expects the new Bermuda reinsurance company to be operational by June with a staff of around ten. No one had been appointed to head up the business as of February 16. Mr. Foster said Everest Re did not have a particular target in mind when it came to acquisitions but noted that a Bermuda holding company structure would make it more efficient and effectively placed to make them when the time came.

The news comes on the heels of Everest Re's fourth quarter and year end reports for 1999.

Net income was $158.1 million for the year, down 0.3 percent per share from $165.2 million the year before while fourth quarter net income was $39.5 million, compared to $39.7 million in the same period of 1998.

Included in these figures was a net pre-tax loss of $19.5 million which related to a pair of severe winter storms which tore through Europe in late December.