on Friday it was forming a holding company in Bermuda, where tax and regulatory laws are less stringent than those in the United States.

Everest, which provides insurance and reinsurance to life and property-casualty insurers, said its board of directors had adopted a restructuring plan to turn it into a subsidiary of the holding, to be called Everest Reinsurance Group Ltd.

"(Bermuda) has become increasingly important as an insurance and reinsurance center,'' its chief executive, Joseph Taranto, said in a statement.

"The regulatory environment is considered to be desirable and the tax incentives are an additional advantage,'' a spokeswoman later told Reuters.

Based in Liberty Corner, New Jersey., Everest said it would also create a reinsurance company called Everest Reinsurance (Bermuda) Ltd., which would also be based in Bermuda.

It said it would try to raise about $450 million to fund the holding and the reinsurer by issuing trust preferred securities and notes in the coming months.

Everest wrote $520 million in net reinsurance premiums in the first half of 1999, making it the seventh largest US reinsurer. It had net income of $69.4 million.

Everest said it would seek to list the holding on the New York Stock Exchange and give it the same "RE'' stock symbol that it had.

"Shares in Everest Reinsurance Holdings Inc. will be exchanged for an equal number of shares in Everest Reinsurance Group Ltd.,'' it said Everest also said its board had expanded its stock repurchase programme 2.5 million shares in addition to the 1.9 million that had been bought.

Everest's stock ended the day 3/16 lower at 26-15/16, near a year low of 26-8/16. It has 48.9 million average diluted shares outstanding.