LONDON (Reuters) ? Shares in Bermuda insurance start-up Lancashire Holdings Ltd. are set to list on London?s junior AIM market on Friday, the company said yesterday.

Lancashire, headed by former Lloyd?s of London underwriter Richard Brindle, is being set up to take advantage of the surge in rates in some types of insurance and reinsurance caused by the string of devastating hurricanes that ravaged the US Gulf coast earlier this year.

Lancashire, which was licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority in October, is looking to raise as much as $1 billion in capital through a combination of the flotation plus funds raised from a number of private equity and hedge fund firms, according to media reports.

In a regulatory filing made on Monday the company said it expected to list its shares on AIM on Friday, three days later than it had anticipated in a previous regulatory statement.

It gave no details about the number of shares it planned to issue or what the price would be.

Orders for shares in the insurer were taken last week and institutional investors were being notified yesterday of how many shares they were being allocated and at what price, sources familiar to the situation said.

The company?s portfolio will be made up of marine, energy and property risks as well as risks assumed for a fee from reinsurers, known as retrocession, according to a regulatory document filed by the company on November 29.

These classes of business were the worst affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma which could present the insurance industry with a record claims bill of over $70 billion.

A host of new insurance companies have set up in Bermuda to exploit the attractive insurance conditions. London-listed insurers Amlin and Hiscox both announced rights issues last month to raise capital to form new Bermuda units.