Beleaguered Bermuda-based AlphaStar Insurance Group - formerly Stirling Cooke Brown - has finally been de-listed from Nasdaq after it failed repeatedly to file its reports on time.

The company yesterday announced that the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Department notified the company on August 1, 2003 that its securities would be de-listed at the opening of business on Tuesday, August 5, 2003.

"The reason for the de-listing is the company's inability to demonstrate full compliance with the requirements for continued listing on The Nasdaq Small Cap Market," the official release said.

The company, which changed its name in October 2002 in a bid to improve its tarnished image, failed to file its annual report (Form 10-K) for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002 and its quarterly report (Form 10-Q) for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2003.

The property casualty and reinsurance holding company, which has business in the UK and the US and has offices in Victoria Street in Hamilton, issued a statement which said: "The company therefore is not in compliance with the filing requirements for continued listing set forth in NASD Marketplace Rule 4310 (c)(14), which requires that Nasdaq issuers timely file their periodic reports in compliance with the reporting obligations under the federal securities laws.

"The company was further informed that its shares will not be immediately eligible for trading on the OTC Bulletin Board due to these same filing deficiencies," the report said.

Stephen Crane, AlphaStar's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a written statement: "We believe that the current regulatory environment, together with the company's publicly announced plans to divest itself of a major subsidiary and its deteriorating overall results, have delayed completion of our periodic reports.

"We will continue to work with the auditors to try to bring this gridlock to an end."

As of the opening of business on April 22, 2002, the company's trading symbol, "ASIG", was amended to include the fifth character "E" to denote the company's filing delinquency.

The action was the first "film finance" case to go to trial among the more than 50 such cases now pending around the world involving, according to some observers, more than $1.5 billion in potential coverage.