Quanta Capital Holdings' shares fell more than ten percent yesterday as investors reacted to the worse-than-expected results from the Bermuda insurer that last month announced it will put itself up for sale, or close, after being hit by a ratings downgrade.

Investors pushed down the shares 10.7 percent yesterday, or 32 cents to $2.68 in Nasdaq composite trading. Quanta's shares have fallen more than 45 percent since it announced at the beginning of March it was expecting higher losses.

On the heels of the announcement, its financial strength rating was cut to the 'B' level, putting a question mark over future business prospects.

In a late regulatory filing on Friday, Quanta disclosed that it lost $54.7 million in the fourth quarter ? a 280 percent deterioration from the $14.4 million loss it recorded during the same quarter a year earlier.

This was nearly $10 million more than the company had estimated as a maximum loss on March 2.

And on Friday the insurer said it had added J.P. Morgan Securities as an advisor, after earlier hiring investment bank Friedman Billings Ramsey to advise it on "strategic alternatives".

It has already bowed out of selling many of the types of insurance policies that accounted for the bulk of its sales in previous years.

For the year, Quanta disclosed $105.9 million in losses, a 94 percent decline from the $54.6 million in losses in 2004, above the $97 million maximum annual loss estimate it had days earlier issued to investors.

Quanta also on Friday gave investors the bad news that it expects its 2006 business to fall be less than one-quarter of its sales last year. It has already been cut from the approved list by leading brokers Marsh Inc. and Aon Corp.

Of the less than $100 million in sales that Quanta estimates it can count on in 2006, more than ten percent, or $ 10.15 million, is to be spent on rent, Quanta said.

The company currently has 318 staff spread across offices around the US, in Bermuda, and London. Nearly one-quarter of the company's rent bill goes to its New York office which is in the Rockefeller Plaza and costs $2.3 million a year.

While it is clear that Quanta needs to cut costs, it has given little detail to back up its pledge to shareholders that it will cut employee costs.

In 2005, Quanta paid out $97.93 million in general and administrative expenses, which includes salary costs.

Since forming in 2003, Quanta has released nine quarterly earnings reports ? seven of which recorded a loss. It has been publicly listed since May 2004.