year have hit hard on yet another insurance company, PXRE Group Ltd, which has reported a net loss for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 1999 of over $38 million or $3.34 per diluted share.

And as a result of the poor results, AM Best, the insurance rating service has put the company's A (excellent) rating under review. The net loss compares with the figures for the same period last year of $3,017,00 or $024 per share.

PXRE said that fourth quarter events accounted for 75 percent of catastrophe losses occurring during the year.

These losses included French and Danish storms as well as Hurricane Lenny.

Other significant losses for 1999 included Hurricane Floyd and prior-year loss development including Hurricanes Georges and Mitch. The fourth quarter losses were partially offset by reinstatement premiums. During the fourth quarter, PXRE eliminated the one-quarter reporting lag from its London operations, resulting in an increase in losses of $3,517,000, primarily related to European storms.

In December 1999, the company announced that its board approved a new stock repurchase programme authorising the purchase of up to 1 million shares.

In 1999 and through February 9, 2000, the company repurchased about 85,000 shares of common stock. The company had about 11,680,000 common shares outstanding as of December 31, 1999.

On October 5, 1999, PXRE completed a reorganisation that involved the formation of PXRE Group Ltd., a Bermuda-based holding company which became the holding company for PXRE Crop. and its other operations. The Company incurred charges of about $5.2 million after-tax in connection with this reorganisation.