Aspen Insurance Holdings will expand its business in Bermuda and further diversify its operations as it continues its strategy to build a balanced platform spanning its three key markets of the US, London and Bermuda.

The Bermudian holding company that provides property and casualty reinsurance in the global market, property and liability insurance principally in the United Kingdom and surplus lines insurance in the United States, said yesterday that it will expand its Bermuda property reinsurance underwriting activities, primarily to services its existing client base in the US and Japan.

Aspen will also allocate an additional $200 million of capital to the Bermuda company to support the expansion of its operations.

Company CFO Julian Cusack said that Bermuda was the obvious place to move this business since it is already home to Aspen's holding company.

He said: "We do a lot of business in the UK and we're expanding our business in the London market so we were looking for some way of relieving the pressure on our UK balance sheet. One of the businesses that works very well in the Bermuda environment is property reinsurance. We have not been doing a great proportion of our property reinsurance business in Bermuda so far so we thought the obvious thing to do was to expand our operation here in that line of business."

Mr. Cusack says the expansion will mean significant growth in Bermuda with the company already poised to take over two floors of the Maxwell Robert building that is currently being constructed at Church Street and Par-la-Ville Road.

"It is very positive for the Bermuda offices of Aspen. There is going to be a significant expansion in the number of people that we will need here and we will be taking additional office space to accommodate that," he said. "We currently have around 13 staff in office and there will be around seven people joining us immediately as a result of this expansion of the business and then a number of other support jobs added in due course."

James Few, who currently heads Aspen's property reinsurance activity, has been appointed Chief Underwriting Officer of Aspen's Bermuda subsidiary Aspen Insurance Limited. Senior property reinsurance underwriters Kate Vacher, Piers Vacher and Stefan Long will also join him in Bermuda.

Yesterday, Aspen also announced plans to diversify its business in London to focus on servicing Aspen's other key markets including the UK, Europe and Canada.

Chris O'Kane, Aspen's Chief Executive Officer said: "This move gives us a greater presence in the increasingly important Bermudian market while at the same time creating greater capacity on our UK balance sheet to expand in new lines of business, including the recently announced marine and aviation insurance initiatives, that play to the strengths of London's excellent distribution network."

Ratings agency A.M. Best said any near term change to the current ratings of the Aspen group of companies is unlikely following Aspen's plans to renew its US and Japanese property reinsurance book for 2005 into its Bermuda operation, Aspen Insurance Limited, rated A- (Excellent) rather than into Aspen Insurance UK Limited rated A (Excellent) where it is currently underwritten.

The agency said: "This reflects information from the group that risk-adjusted capital levels in AIL will be fully maintained as a result of a capital injection of USD 200 million to support increased premium volume (approximately a 100 percent increase in gross premium income in 2005), that the relevant reinsurance protection will continue to be maintained on the property reinsurance book and that the total risk profile of the group will be largely as previously planned."

The ratings agency said that while the respective business profiles of the Bermuda and UK operations will clearly change, at this stage it was unlikely this would have a direct rating impact. The agency is poised to make further comments after discussing the restructuring in detail with Aspen's management.