The initial public offering for Bermuda's latest reinsurance venture - Platinum Underwriters Holdings - should come some time this month, and some analysts take the view that it may be sooner rather than later.

On Monday, St. Paul newspaper the Pioneer Press reported that analysts were predicting the IPO could go to market even in a matter of days. At the very least, company data shows that the IPO should take place by the last week in October.

The company's plans to launch on the New York Stock Exchange were announced earlier this year and were initially set to take place in June but after a number of false starts the company delayed their IPO plans, citing poor market conditions.

At the time, an investor relations spokesperson for the company said: "Given what is happening in the market, investor confidence is clearly shaken. And we are just looking at it day by day," she said.

Indeed, some questioned whether or not the company would ever successfully complete its listing. But with a lower per share target price - initial targets of $23 to $26 now stand at $22 to $23 per share - and the recent announcement that Renaissance Re plans to invest up to $100 million in the company's common shares, it looks like the IPO may finally fly.

Platinum was the only class 4 company - large insurance ventures with minimum capital and surplus of $100 million - to incorporate on the Island last quarter, in contrast to the wave of more than a dozen such companies set up on the Island during the previous two quarters following a void in capacity after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Platinum was set up as a result of the St. Paul group of companies, a United States company which provides commercial property-liability insurance and asset management, making the decision to transfer its ongoing reinsurance operation to the newly-formed Platinum venture.

St. Paul has said it is to own 24.9 percent of Platinum, and the other 75.1 percent was to be offered to the public in common shares. But with the announcement of RenRe's plan to invest in nearly 4 million common shares, the IPO goes from its original goal of raising $1 billion down to some $690.9 million and the offering of some 34 million shares. The St. Paul's reinsurance operation, St. Paul Re, in exchange for the 24.9 percent stake in the new company, which will have 9.9 percent of the voting rights.

RenRe is also set to receive $4 million in annual fees for providing Platinum assistance with its property-catastrophe book of business.