PartnerRe is to buy back up to five million of its common shares.

The company's board of directors have approved the stock repurchase, which reflects an increase of around 1.2 million shares on the buyback amount previously agreed by the company.

Since the start of 2007 the company has repurchased a total of 487,300 common shares. PartnerRe president and CEO Patrick Thiele said: "Active capital management is a vital part of our long term strategy in a cyclical industry. We allocate capital to those areas which we believe provide the best available risk adjusted returns. Given current market conditions, we believe share repurchase represents one of the most attractive risk adjusted return opportunities for PartnerRe at this time.

"This authorisation provides us with the flexibility to take full advantage of all opportunities."