The boss of the world's fourth largest reinsurer Hannover Re has indicated that he was speaking "hypothetically" when he spoke about the possibility of the firm relocating to a low-tax jurisdiction at the Le Rendez-Vous reinsurance conference in Monte Carlo this week.

During a press conference, the Germany-based reinsurer's chief executive officer Wilhelm Zeller said that from a fiscal point of view a relocation to Ireland would be "ideal" but he added "Germany was not such a bad place to run a reinsurance operation from."

The firm, currently worth $5.5 billion, has considered relocating before but for now remains in Germany.

After the press conference Mr. Zeller is reported to have qualified his earlier comments regarding an Ireland relocation as being purely a hypothetical musing.