Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne hit MaxRe with a $9 million third quarter loss. This breaks down to a net loss of 20 cents per share for the Bermuda-based company which, in the same period last year, reported a net income of 89 cents per share or $38.8 million.

Max Re Capital Ltd. through its principal operating subsidiaries, Max Re Ltd., Max Insurance Europe Limited and Max Re Europe Limited, offers customised risk financing solutions to property and casualty insurers, life and health insurers and large corporations.

In the earning statement, Robert J. Cooney, chairman, president and chief executive officer said: ?Losses from hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, predominately through our investment in DaVinci Re, had a significant negative impact on our third quarter results.

?In addition, our MDS portfolio continued to be affected by the challenging investment environment and did not contribute to third quarter earnings.

?Despite hurricane activity during the quarter, Max Re showed continuing improvement in its property and casualty combined ratio compared to the prior year. The combination of these factors resulted in a net loss of US$9.0 million for the third quarter.?

Net operating loss before minority interest, which represents net income before minority interest reduced by net realised gains on sale of fixed maturities, for the 2004 quarter was $9.9 million or 20 cents per share compared to net operating income of $29.3 million or 64 cents per share in the same period last year.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2004, MaxRe had net income of $46.6 million or 96 cents per diluted share compared to $84.2 million or $2.08 per share year-on-year.

MaxRe had net operating income before minority interest of $42.5 million or 87 cents per share compared to $79.9 million or $1.76 per share in the nine months of 2003.

Gross premiums written for the three months ended September 30, 2004 were $280.8 million, with $105.8 million of property and casualty premiums and $175 million of life and annuity premiums, compared to $188.6 million of property and casualty premiums and no life and annuity premiums for the three months ended September 30, 2003. Gross premiums written for the first nine months of 2004, were $904 million a fifteen percent increase over the $784.9 million in the same period 2003.

Shareholders? equity was US$847.8 million at September 30, 2004. Book value per share at September 30, 2004 was US$18.54 per share, compared to US$17.82 at December 31, 2003, principally reflecting net income generated in the nine month period.

Return on average shareholders? equity for the trailing 12 month period was 9.1 percent.

The company?s board of directors declared a dividend of US$0.03 per common share which is payable on November 26, 2004 to shareholders of record on November 12, 2004.