Bermuda-based ACE Limited will reveal the long-awaited findings of audits into the adequacy of its asbestos reserves in early January.

The announcement from ACE that it will be coming out with the information must be music to investment analysts ears who have been badgering management for an update on the matter during quarterly conference calls this year.

ACE said it will release information on January 5 after market close, and follow that with a conference call in the morning of January 6.

Although the outcome of both internal and external reviews of the company?s asbestos reserves will remain a mystery until then, there has been speculation that ACE will need to once again boost its reserves for future asbestos claims.

Less than two years ago, ACE was forced to boost those same reserves to the tune of $2 billion after its own internal review and a study by an outside firm concluded the reserves were under-funded.

The development resulted in a net charge to ACE of $354 million, with the balance offset by reinsurance coverage.

Questions on whether ACE might again boost its reserves come as the US legislative environment continues to be flooded with claims from those exposed to the once commonly-used fire retardant now known to be a cancer-causing agent.

At least one financial analyst who follows the insurance sector predicted earlier this year that the Bermuda-based insurance giant would have to once again top up its funds for future claims.

Analysts have also been closely watching the company?s reinsurance recoverables balance with concern that reinsurers might not make good on the full balance, if it came to it. ACE ? which picked up its asbestos liabilities as a result of its 1999 takeover of Cigna?s property and casualty operations ? has said previously that the level of liabilities from asbestos did have a ceiling, including an $800 million contractual limit under a reinsurance agreement with National Indemnity Company (NICo), a division of Berkshire Hathaway.

But beyond that management has been tight-lipped on where things stand. In late October, president and CEO Evan Greenberg would not be drawn on whether or not the company?s reserves for future asbestos claims were adequate but said the company would have the findings of both its internal audit and external review by an independent third party in hand by the end of the year.

?Let?s let the studies play out and then we will look at it. Before we close out the year, we?ll have the results of the study and we will share (analysis) with you,? Mr. Greenberg told analysts, adding that whatever the results of the study ?good or bad? ACE would face the issue head on.