It has been 16 months since Scottish Annuity & Life moved its world headquarters to Bermuda from the Cayman Islands. The company is busy, active and growing.

At the time the move was made, in April 2001, Scottish chairman and chief executive officer Michael French famously said: "Bermuda is the capital of the global insurance industry" and circumstances have proven him right.

Scottish is a re/insurance company with two main lines: life reinsurance and wealth management, through the direct issue of variable insurance policies to high net worth individuals.

Results for the first-half of 2002 were more than encouraging. Net operating earnings for the six months ended June 30, 2002 more than doubled, to $15.3 million, from $7.6 million for the first half of 2001. Net income for the six months this year, which takes account of stock gains and losses and unusual items, was $12.8 million, compared to $7.6 million last year.

The second quarter 2002 results "continue to reflect the high quality fundamental characteristics of our business model," Mr. French said. "As we complete the first half of this year, we are well into another year devoted to steadily building the company's earnings power and franchise value."

As of June 30, 2002, Scottish had approximately $49.0 billion of life reinsurance in force covering 1,252,000 lives with an average benefit per life of $39,000 in its North American operations.

The company's total assets were $2.6 billion as of June 30, 2002. The core investment portfolio, comprising fixed maturity investments and most of the cash and cash equivalents, totalled $756.2 million, and had an average quality rating of AA-, an effective duration of 3.8 years and a weighted average book yield of 5.94 percent.

Mr. French founded Maverick Capital in 1993, in the Cayman Islands. Maverick went on to become one of the largest hedge funds in the world. A year later, he established a predecessor to Scottish, also in Cayman, where he was familiar with the infrastructure.

Scottish was formed in May 1998 and completed an initial public offering six months later. Its total revenues in 1998 were $1.3 million. A year later, $22.4 million. A year after that, $83.9 million. Last year, they were $119.5 million.

For the first six months of this year: $117.9 million. Scottish has been busy since moving to Bermuda.

On December 31, 2001, the company completed its purchase of World-Wide Reassurance and its parent company, World-Wide Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pacific Life Insurance. World-Wide, based in Windsor, England, provides life reinsurance primarily to insurance companies outside the United States, and also serves as a retrocessionaire to US reinsurance companies.

A week before the World-Wide acquisition closed, Lord Lamont, the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, joined the Scottish board, a small but formidable group that includes Hazel O'Leary, a Clinton-era US Secretary of Energy who is now president and chief operating officer of Blaylock & Partners, the leading minority-owned investment banking firm in the United States. O'Leary was the longest-serving Energy Secretary, the first woman, the first African-American and the first energy executive to hold the post.

"Our corporate claim to fame is the organisational flexibility we have to write business in the most appropriate jurisdiction," said Scott E. Willkomm, president and chief financial officer of Scottish, which has operating companies in Bermuda, Charlotte, North Carolina, Dublin, Ireland, Grand Cayman, Luxembourg and Windsor, England.

The company's flagship operating subsidiaries include Scottish Annuity & Life Insurance Company (Cayman) Ltd. and Scottish Re (U.S.), Inc., which are rated A- (excellent) by A.M. Best, A (strong) by Fitch Ratings, A3 (good) by Moody's and A- (strong) by Standard & Poor's; and World-Wide Reassurance Company Limited, which is rated A- (excellent) by A.M. Best, A (strong) by Fitch Ratings and A-(strong) by Standard & Poor's.

Mr. Willkomm is proud of the staff Scottish has accumulated and its management team, which took a year and a half to put in place. "Having sales people who have been in the trenches for the last 20 years is simply invaluable," he said.

Mr. French has confirmed that management will voluntarily certify the financial statements of Scottish in connection with the filing of documentation in accordance with the US Securities & Exchange Commission's requirements for large public companies.

Industry watchers are looking forward to more good news from Scottish as 2002 continues. Despite low interest rates, which make pricing life products more difficult, the company appears to be on a winning track.