Executives of Bermuda-based insurer and reinsurer Catlin Group Ltd. said they were happy with the results of their initial public offering yesterday on the London Stock Exchange, despite having priced at the low end of expectations.

Catlin shares priced at 350 pence apiece ? at the bottom of the 350 to 420 pence range the company had used when on a roadshow marketing the stock in the fortnight before the IPO ? against a backdrop of investor pessimism after the terrorist attacks last month in Spain.

Although the company saw its shares price at the low end of expectations yesterday morning, investors did push the shares up by six pence to 356 pence during the day?s trading. This put the company?s market capitalisation at ?549.3 million, still a far cry from the ?700 million to ?800 million put on the company by analysts at the beginning of March when the IPO was announced.

In total, Catlin?s first day of trading raised ?166 million from the sale of new stock and shares being sold off by existing shareholders. That result ? which calculates out to some $306 million ? was below the ?200 million the company could have seen if shares had priced at the high end the expected range, but executives cited the result as positive given the current state of the markets. Yesterday head of communications for the Catlin Group Jim Burcke said the company?s timing had been unavoidably poor with the price range for the IPO being made on the very day multiple bombs went off on commuter trains in Madrid. In the aftermath of those attacks, European stocks, especially in the insurance sector, have flagged.

Speaking with by telephone from London, Mr. Burcke said: ?What has happened is that when the stock price range was set a little over two weeks ago, it was the same day as the Madrid bombings. And what we found (in the interim) was that the market for IPOs ? at least in Europe ? tightened considerably.?

Mr. Burcke pointed out that a number of IPOs slated for that period were pulled. ?It is a very tough market out there,? he said.

When asked if Catlin had considered postponing going public until market conditions improved, Mr. Burcke said delaying the IPO had been decided against.

?We were committed to launching at this time and we think, given conditions, we got fair value and think shareholders will find fair value over time.?

He said the fact that the shares had priced at the bottom of the range was not unexpected with Catlin Group executives having seen first hand, during a roadshow in the run up to the IPO, that investors, particularly institutional investors, were being ?extremely cautious?.

He added that the FTSE insurance index had fallen off eight percent in the month of March, showing the market?s ?considerable deterioration in the last 30 days?. Participating in the company?s road show, which kicked off on March 18, was Catlin Group executives Stephen Catlin, founder and CEO, Paul Jardine, COO, Chris Stock, CFO and Paul Brand, chief underwriting officer.

Pricing aside, Mr. Burcke pointed out that investors had demonstrated strong interest in the stock with the issue being oversubscribed two and a half times.

?We are very happy. We are not bemoaning the fact that the shares priced at the low end. It is a conservative market, and we think (with that taken into consideration) we received fair value for the shares.?

He also said it was a positive sign that trading of the company?s shares yesterday had been light. ?There were not a lot of shareholders getting rid of the shares they had just bought.?

Mr. Burcke said that the company?s hope was that, over time, the value in the Catlin brand would be proven, with both new and existing shareholders seeing the value of their shares go up.

The Catlin Group is made up of its Bermuda operation, Catlin Insurance Company Ltd., and syndicate 2003 at Lloyd?s of London.

CEO of Catlin?s Bermuda operations Graham Pewter was away on holiday yesterday and not available for comment. Although Mr. Burcke said that no one from the Bermuda office was present at the IPO, he said Mr. Pewter had participated in pre-launch presentations including at a meeting with analysts in February.

Catlin, which has predicted the greatest growth to come from its UK operations in the next few years, said it was selling shares in the IPO to support underwriting.

The Catlin Group?s subsidiaries underwrite specialty classes of property & casualty insurance and reinsurance. The company has a solid track record having been in operation since 1984 when founder Stephen Catlin, 49, set up the company with a small bank loan.

Last year, Catlin?s gross premium income jumped 66 percent $1.2 billion. On the whole, the industry has performed well in recent years with insurance premium rates having spiked after the September 11 terrorist attacks left a void in capacity. However, the widely held expectation is that rates have either peaked or will do so this year.