publicly-held shares has led to a substantial over-subscription of more than 230 percent. Preliminary indications are that 1.9 million common shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. have been tendered for purchase and cancellation by the company. The count was made by ChaseMellon Shareholder Services, L.L.C., the depositary company for RenaissanceRe's tender offer and is subject to verification. The tender offer began December 23 and expired Wednesday night. Senior vice president and chief financial officer, Keith S. Hynes, conceded the offer was overwhelmed by subscriptions. Mr. Hynes said, "We were over-subscribed more than we expected. We had set the price to get an over-subscription, so that we could get all the shares we wanted. But we were well over-subscribed.'' On December 23, the day of the announcement inviting subscriptions, the share price in the market was $33, or $1.50 below the tender price of $34.50. But during the tender period, the share price traded up to the tender price. The company said that the determination of the actual number of shares tendered is subject to final confirmation and the proper delivery of all shares tendered and not withdrawn, including shares tendered pursuant to the guaranteed delivery procedures. The company will accept their targeted 813,190 common shares for purchase and cancellation. All of the common shares tendered by odd lot holders will be accepted for purchase and cancellation. As a result of the over-subscription, the number of shares to be purchased from each tendering shareholder, other than odd lot holders, will be subject to a proration factor of which the preliminary estimate is 41.5 percent. After the tender offer, RenaissanceRe will have 22.8 million common shares outstanding. The company also said that payment for shares properly tendered and accepted will be made as soon as practicable, subject to proper delivery of shares, as specified in the terms of the tender offer. Last month, vice president of investment bank, Lehman Brothers, Peter Wade, told his investing clients that RenaissanceRe was not only returning its excess capital to investors, but was doing it in such a way that preserved the liquidity of the shares and was most tax efficient. Mr. Wade said, "Investors have yet to fully value RenaissanceRe's earning power, capital generating capabilities, and, disciplined management; instead, they remain focused on the firm's low earnings growth rate and perceived high earnings volatility.'' He said the share repurchase programme had reversed the declining earnings and he predicted a positive increase for 1997 and beyond. These statements were published near the time that RenaissanceRe announced elements of its capital management strategy that included the returning of $100 million to founding institutional shareholders. The move included a planned $72-million repurchase of 2.1 million common shares held by institutional shareholders at $34.50 each. The 813,190 remaining shares with public shareholders were being purchased up until this week at the same price, which would have totaled an additional $28 million. Lehman Brothers rated the Bermuda-based catastrophe reinsurer at "1-buy''. RenaissanceRe this month declared end of year profits of $156,160,000.