White Mountains, the giant US insurer that moved to Bermuda in the late 1990s, is set to beef up its operations on the Island and could see several subsidiaries and 100 staff located here.

And its executives yesterday said that while White Mountains had always been primarily a US company, it was moving away from that and planning placing more of its operations in Bermuda.

The company, which yesterday launched its secondary listing on the Bermuda Stock Exchange, said that the plans are still at a preliminary stage, but could come into fruition within the next few years.

"In the next three years we may bring as many as three or four of our subsidiaries into Bermuda and I think the employment in those three or four might grow to 100," said Jack Byrne, chairman of White Mountains. "And, in fact, we are actually in the middle of a transaction, that if we were to complete it we would pull significant parts of our own infrastructure here to Bermuda."

And chief executive officer, Ray Barrette, said that the success of Montpelier Re, which the company was instrumental in setting up, was one of the reasons for the move.

"It (setting up Montpelier) was the best demonstration if you have an opportunity and you want to move quickly because time is of the essence, then it is the place to be," said Mr. Barrette yesterday. "And I think Montpelier Re demonstrated that. And a lot of the competitors of Montpelier Re did the same thing at about the same time."

Both men, who were presented with plaques yesterday as an official welcome to the BSX, said that White Mountains was moving towards becoming more of a Bermuda company.

It currently has only a minimal presence with just two staff and most of its operations in the United States.

Mr. Barrette said: "White Mountains' listing on the BSX is a further demonstration that we are a Bermuda company. We moved to Bermuda from the US in 1999 and have gradually been building our presence in Bermuda. This is just one of the building blocks, but it is an important building block and we see it as a continuation of the process of moving presence to Bermuda more and more.

"We are in the process of building, we only have a very small presence at the moment, we only have a couple of employees and we expect over time that will build extremely quickly."

He added that within the next 12 months White Mountains could have a dozen people and different parts of their business in Bermuda.

He added that they were also associated with Montpelier Re, which has about 35 people in Bermuda.

Mr. Barrette added: “So we think of all of our relationships here as adding up to value in Bermuda.”

When asked why the company had moved to Bermuda, Mr. Barrette said that the Island had become the centre of international insurance and reinsurance business. “It was clear to us in the mid I 1990s that the place to be was Bermuda and we managed to move our company to Bermuda,” said Mr. Barrette. “We think that was a very successful move and if you think of selling any insurance or reinsurance business internationally today the first place you have to look is Bermuda, it has become such a clear centre of activity around the world.”

Mr. Byrne pointed to the regulatory environment in Bermuda as a plus point for companies such as his moving to the Island.

“We enjoy the fact that good, strong companies who know what they are doing can get along quickly and in a business like manner with the regulators here,” said Mr. Byrne. “You know we have many different operations and we are starting to build many of them around the world.

“We have always been a US company up until now. But more and more we are focusing on bringing those operations into Bermuda.”