Bermuda could be the home of a new reinsurer which hopes to raise at least $750 million before it is launched later this year, according to Business Insurance.

The proposed venture is the brain child of one of US broker Blanch Holdings top executives.

The insurance trade newspaper said that E.W. Blanch Holdings Inc. Vice Chairman Kaj Ahlmann will resign from the reinsurance broker in March.

And it added he is leaving to head a new runoff reinsurer that Blanch may have a role in managing and that will be looking to raise at least $750 million in a private placement.

No legal notices about the incorporation of the company have appeared in Bermuda as yet.

The periodical reported that Mr. Ahlmann said the new reinsurer, dubbed Markitas, is being formed to assume books of business from other insurers or reinsurers that want to shed the liabilities for various reasons, such as impending mergers.

Business Insurance said J.P. Morgan & Co. is developing the private offering for Markitas but said the final amount of the offering is still being discussed but is now pegged at a minimum of $750 million, according to Mr.

Ahlmann.

And the reinsurer's domicile also remains under discussion, though Bermuda is one of the locations being reviewed, he said.

The article said that while Blanch would not be a significant investor in Markitas, it might become a shareholder of Markitas' management company, and it could also act as a broker on business reinsured by Markitas, Mr. Ahlmann said.

Business Insurance said Ted Blanch Jr., the broker's chairman, noted that Blanch has been involved in developing the Markitas concept but that its role in any ongoing operations of the reinsurer "is yet to be fully determined.'' Blanch announced that Mr. Ahlmann, who joined the brokerage in November 1999, will resign at the end of the first quarter to focus on Markitas' development.

Mr. Ahlmann, a former chairman and chief executive officer of Employers Reinsurance Corp., will remain a Blanch director.