business and will no longer have a presence on the Island by the end of the month.

The Royal Gazette reported yesterday how staff working at the insurance company in Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton, had been told that their services were no longer needed.

The decision followed the $680 million buy-out of Terra Nova (Bermuda) Holdings on Friday last week by Markel Corporation.

Vice chairman of Markel, Steve Markel, said yesterday the decision reflected a detailed review of all Terra Nova entities and their strategic importance.

But he said the company's existing obligations would be managed to ensure an orderly run-off.

And while neither Markel nor Terra Nova will maintain an active underwriting presence in Bermuda after April 28, Markel intends to maintain a reinsurance company on the Island for the foreseeable future.

Mr. Markel said: "The Bermuda company is not part of our core business and it's not a large part of our organisation.

"We will continue to have the subsidiary companies there, but we won't look after them in Bermuda.'' He said there were ten or 12 workers at the holding company. Some were from Britain and will now be returning to work from the London office of Terra Nova.

The Bermudian workers have been offered redundancy packages, but Mr. Markel said he was not in a position to detail what kind of financial deals they entailed.

Markel Corporation markets and underwrites speciality insurance products and programmes to a variety of niche markets. In each of these markets, the company seeks to provide quality products and excellent customer service so that it can be a market leader.

Mr. Markel said the financial goals of the company were to earn consistent underwriting profits and superior investment returns to build shareholder value.

Through its new Terra Nova subsidiaries, Markel underwrites a diverse property, casualty, marine and aviation insurance and reinsurance business on a world-wide basis.

Terra Nova stops taking new business Following the buy-out of the Terra Nova companies, Standard and Poor's -- a well respected ratings agency -- yesterday lowered its ratings on Markel and its related entities and removed them from CreditWatch, where they were placed on January 26 with negative implications. At the same time, the agency, which is used as a guide by people buying stock in companies, took various rating actions on insurer Terra Nova.

It has now lowered the counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on Terra Nova (Bermuda) to triple-`B' from a more healthy single-`A'and revised the CreditWatch implications to negative from developing.

The CreditWatch implications on Terra Nova will be reviewed during the next few weeks.