Assurance PLC partly because it sold a Bermudian asset management group.

S&P said it increased its long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on the UK life insurer to single `A' minus from triple-`B'-plus and said the outlook is stable.

According to S&P, the rating upgrade is based on J. Rothschild Assurance's improved capitalisation and financial flexibility, following completion of the sale by St. James's Place Capital PLC, the ultimate parent company of J.

Rothschild Assurance, of its 29.7 percent share holding in Global Asset Management, a Bermuda-based asset management group.

The sale increases the parent company's focus on life insurance business, and will enable it to finance the development of J. Rothschild Assurance.

FLAG FILES FOR IPO BUC Flag files for IPO Bermuda-based Flag Telecom, a self described "carriers' carrier'' of telecommunications products and services, has filed for an initial public offering in a bid to raise over $400 million.

The company is offering 26.4 million common shares. Included in this figure are some of its shareholders, including Telecom Asia Corp Public Co Ltd and General Electric Co's Capital Corp which are offering 5.3 million shares to the public.

The projected price rage is between $20 and $22 a share, according to a filing with the US securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week.

Under the middle of that range, the company predicts it will make about $416.8 million after expenses which it plans to use to repay debt under an existing credit capacity and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

BLAGMAN MEDIA ACQUIRES BDA CO BUC Blagman Media acquires Bda co Blagman Media International Inc., a global direct response marketing and advertising agency, has announced that it acquired Mullinger Media & Communications, a Bermuda-registered publishing consultancy with major interests in the Middle East.

"We have concluded negotiations and are happy to announce that Mullinger is now part of the expanding Blagman Media Group,'' said Chris Mullinger, Mullinger's chairman.

Mullinger is in the final stages of launching the biggest direct mail consumer lifestyle magazine in the Middle East, which will go in April to 400,000 Visa credit cardholders in the Arabian Gulf region via their banks.

The magazine, called VISA Life,is to be in Arabic and English and will be free to more than half of all Visa credit cardholders in the Gulf Co-operation Council states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"It is a huge undertaking in this increasingly sophisticated consumer market.

`VISA Life' will provide advertisers with their first opportunity to speak directly to a defined audience of middle to high income earners across the region,'' Mr. Mullinger added.

IENA TRO SUPPLY GLOBAL CROSSING BUC CIENA to supply Global Crossing CIENA Corporation yesterday announced that it will supply intelligent optical transport solutions for the Bermuda-based Global Crossing network.

Under an existing contract with Racal Telecom, which was acquired by Global Crossing in November, the carrier has purchased CIENA MultiWave Sentry systems for the expansion of its UK network to support regional and international Global Crossing customer traffic.

"Our strategy is to significantly accelerate the availability of high-speed data services to corporate customers, and rapid provisioning is essential for meeting our customers' expectations,'' said Bob Falconer, director of networks for Global Crossing in the UK.

"The software intelligence that CIENA builds into its systems enables us to automatically scale the network and turn-up new routes. To us, that means getting service to customers faster than ever.''