West End Capital yesterday said it was moving its Dublin functions to Bermuda in a bid to cut costs.

Although West End Capital already has an established Bermuda presence, it said in a Press statement yesterday that it was moving the money-management functions of its Dublin affiliate to the Island. This development follows the company moving operations, accounting and capital adequacy functions from Dublin to Bermuda earlier in the year.

In specific, the company cited its move as one that would "reduce overheads and increase profitability," in relation to its position as investment advisor to Rathgar Capital Management (Bermuda) Limited.

The news was yesterday seen as a thumbs up for Bermuda by chairman of the Association Bermuda International Companies, David Ezekiel, who said: "This is obviously a good move, certainly from a Bermuda perspective."

Mr. Ezekiel added that it "demonstrated the cross-pollination between Bermuda and Dublin," and he cited an increasing familiarity between the two international business jurisdictions.

In recent months there has been speculation that Bermuda companies may be considering Dublin as a place to move their businesses if stricter immigration policies were enforced.

In effect, the business community has been concerned about the term limits on work permits and the "tone" of comments made by the former Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister, who said he personally wanted to limit all work permits to nine years. International companies have warned that they had prepared contingency plans for leaving the Island if the controversial term limits were not removed.

Many have said they are considering moving to Dublin if the situation was not rectified.

In the summer, the body in charge of attracting business to Dublin confirmed it had been in talks with Bermuda companies.

But yesterday Mr. Ezekiel said he did not think the level of talk in the business community "had really got to that stage of seriousness" where companies were actively considering a move off the Island, but he added: "If it did, I cannot imagine Dublin not being considered.

"Dublin is familiar and it has a thriving insurance and reinsurance industry. It would be on the radar screen, if somebody had a contingency plan," he said.

But in a happy twist for Bermuda, West End Capital Management Ltd. - which was reported by Bloomberg as a hedge fund company that oversees about $600 million for Warren Buffett - said it sees the Island as a better deal than Dublin, with West End Capital Management (Bermuda) Limited chairman Mark Byrne saying in a press statement: "Earlier this year, the operations, accounting and capital adequacy functions were transferred from Dublin to our Bermuda head office and this latest transfer of investment credit monitoring and funding functions completes the orderly transfer of advisory functions to Bermuda," he said.

Kevin Kilduff, previously chief investment officer of the Dublin unit, was named chief executive officer of the newly created West End Capital Advisors in Bermuda while Aogan Foley, the head of the Dublin unit, will leave the company next month, "to pursue other opportunities".

West End Capital Advisors is an adviser to Rathgar Capital Management, which acts as investment manager to Rathgar Capital Corp., which was reported by Bloomberg as a structured investment vehicle. Rathgar invests in securities such as bank debt.

Leading rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody's were said to have approved the move of delegation functions from West End Capital Management (Dublin) Limited to West End Capital Advisors (Bermuda) Limited.