be filed today at Bermuda Supreme Court, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The application follows Bermuda Fire & Marine's decision to suspend trading of its stock on the Bermuda Stock Exchange on Friday.

No reason for the suspension has been given to the Exchange yet.

But a source close to Bermuda Fire & Marine said: "There have been a series of directors meetings recently and the firm is going to be liquidated.

"Some of the firm's larger creditors have been consulted and are in agreement with the move.'' It has been speculated that a scheme of arrangement will be put in place to pay creditors a portion of what they are owed reasonably quickly, with payment of the remaining liabilities negotiated later.

Bermuda Fire & Marine's directors, who include the Hon. Charles Collis, Mr.

Donald Lines, Mr. Eldon Trimingham and Mr. Fernance Perry, were hiding behind a wall of silence yesterday.

Mr. William Cox, Bermuda Fire & Marine's vice chairman, said: "I don't choose to make any comment about the position of the company.'' Asked if it might appear irresponsible for a publicly traded company to suspend its shares without issuing a reason, Mr. Cox said: "A statement will be issued by the directors in the very near future.

"It's not appropriate to make a press release at this point. It will happen, hopefully, before the end of this week.'' They suggested The Royal Gazette should not write a story until an official announcement was made, although no-one would say when that would be.

Mr. Collis, the company's chairman, has been off the Island for several days and has not responded to a message to call the newspaper which was sent to him by his law firm, Conyers, Dill & Pearman.

CD&P lawyer Mrs. Robin Mayor, whose firm represents Bermuda Fire & Marine, also declined to comment.

If Bermuda Fire & Marine is wound up it will come as no surprise to many in the local business community.

They have been predicting the company's demise since it sold its profitable domestic business for $56 million to a new company called BF&M Ltd. on September 5, 1991.

For every two shares that they held in Bermuda Fire & Marine, the company's shareholders were given one share in BF&M.

Bermuda Fire & Marine, left with nothing but disastrous international business written on the H.S. Weaver's stamp between 1968 and 1983, has effectively been in run off ever since.

Some observers believed the split was a blatant attempt to preserve the profitable part of the business at the expense of Bermuda Fire & Marine's creditors.

But one source said part of the international company's problems came as a result of several of its reinsurers going insolvent, meaning it was unable to recover money tp pay creditors. Last week, Bermuda, Fire & Marine issued a writ against Us-based reinsurer Transit Casualty, which was described as a "$4 billion'' insolvency when it was closed.

Immediately after the split, some local oobservers doubted whether Bermuda Fire & Marine would have enough assets to meet its liabilities, the full extent of which will not be known for several years.

The price of Bermuda Fire & Marine's shares has plummeted from an initial 50 cents per share to just five cents per share when they were most recently traded on the Bermuda Stock Exchange eight days ago. BF&M shares, on the other hand, have gone from $7 per share to a 1993-high of $11.00, although they have dropped back to $8 recently.