A Bermuda-based holding company headed by former Marsh & McLennan chief Jeffrey Greenberg has joined forces with investors including Swiss Re and Lehman Brothers to launch a new Lloyd's of London underwriting vehicle.

The vehicle, Ark Syndicate Management, said in a statement yesterday it had been approved by Britain's Financial Services Authority and by Lloyd's and would begin underwriting a diversified book of insurance and reinsurance in marine, energy, property and casualty classes.

Ark marks the first move into the Lloyd's market by Mr. Greenberg's Aquiline, which will be the biggest investor, backing the vehicle alongside insurance investor and services firm Whittington, reinsurance giant Swiss Re and private equity fund Lehman Brothers Co-Investment Partners.

Aquiline is also the lead investor in Validus Re, which he Mr. Greenberg helped to form after the record 2005 hurricane season.

Mr. Greenberg, son of insurance mogul Maurice (Hank) Greenberg and the brother of Ace Ltd. chief executive Evan Greenberg, will become chairman of the Bermuda-based holding group, Group Ark Insurance Holdings Ltd., while the former head of insurance at Aspen Insurance Holdings, Ian Beaton, will be Ark's chief executive.

"The initiatives undertaken by Lloyd's management have significantly strengthened Lloyd's franchise as a premier global insurance and reinsurance market," Mr. Greenberg said. "We are excited about the opportunity to participate in Lloyd's through Ark."

Ark has the capacity to underwrite $114 million ($221.7 million) in premiums from April 1, when its policies begin, to the end of 2007.

New-York based private equity firm Aquiline is the lead investor, and its managing principal, Jeffrey Greenberg, will be chairman of the Bermuda-based holding company, .

The Wall Street Journal said insurers' record profits in 2006 are helping to send more money to Lloyd's, with Ark's entrance raising the number of syndicates at Lloyd's to 67, according to the market's Web site.

"It also comes amid a continuing flurry of efforts to boost the efficiency and risk-management of the more than 300-year-old market, where many of the world's biggest and most specialised risks —from tankers to fine art to pianists' hands — are insured, after high claims stung thousands of individual investors in the early 1990s," the story said.

"We think that Lloyd's as a marketplace has a good story attached to it now that will help those doing business there," Mr. Greenberg, chairman of Ark's Bermuda-based holding company, said in an interview with the WSJ.

The newspaper said that in January, a unit of Bank of America Corp. launched a Lloyd's syndicate.

The influx of capital into the market could lead to cuts in insurance rates and in profits in coming years, but Mr. Greenberg said: "Cycles are an important feature of the business, and one has to be cautious when prices are softening. Importantly, the management team we're backing has done well in the past."

The Times in the UK quoted a spokesman for Aquiline saying that Mr. Greenberg intended to be active in terms of strategic operations and giving financial guidance.