Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda reinsurer whose shares plunged 55 percent after last year?s record hurricane season, will receive a $100 million investment from financier Wilbur Ross.

WL Ross & Co., the billionaire?s buyout company, will privately purchase 6.9 million Montpelier Re shares for $14.50 each, the reinsurer said yesterday in a statement. The stock closed on Wednesday at $14.53, its lowest price since Montpelier Re first sold shares to the public in October 2002.

Ross, 68, is known for buying assets of distressed companies. Last year Montpelier Re paid $1.12 billion for losses on catastrophes including Hurricane Katrina, the insurance industry?s most expensive US disaster.

The company has reduced its potential losses by purchasing more reinsurance for itself and raising prices. Reinsurers have as much as doubled rates in areas hit by last year?s hurricanes, insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Ltd. said in a January study. Reinsurance is insurance for insurers.

Ross will join Montpelier?s board after making two $50 million investments, the statement said. He?ll complete his first purchase on or about June 1.

Montpelier Re stock rose 95 cents, or 6.5 percent, to $15.44 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. The shares have fallen 55 percent since Katrina came ashore last August, compared with a 10.4 percent gain in the NYSE Composite Index. ? Bloomberg