grow, according to Mr. Chris Wetherhill, the company's chairman, president and CEO.

Now Bermuda's only publicly held management group is forming new companies which will help it access new markets around the world.

"The sky's the limit,'' said Mr. Wetherhill. "Going public added credibility.'' Last November, the Bermuda company's IPO of 846,000 convertible redeemable preferred shares generated $4.23 million in gross proceeds and $350,000 in net proceeds for the company.

The IPO was 30 percent oversubscribed.

"Even I was surprised by the overwhelming response to the offering,'' said Mr. Wetherhill.

Hemisphere, whose Bermuda operations occupy the third and fifth floors in Trenwick House on Church Street, now has over $2 billion in funds under administration and about 400 clients, up from $1.5 billion and 350 reported three months ago in their prospectus.

With the growth in overseas clients, and despite world stock markets taking a beating in 1994, Hemisphere's assets under administration have increased by $500 million thanks to the addition of new clients.

The company's clients, none of whom are Bermudian, are primarily from the UK, Europe, the US, and Canada, and include mutual funds, investment holding companies, trading companies and trusts.

According to Mr. Wetherhill, Bermuda clients have a long-established relationships with other management companies and it would be "presumptuous'' of Hemisphere to try and take clients from them.

Not only has the company expanded its client base, many of those clients are now shareholders, he commented.

Mr. Wetherhill added all the public offering could have been taken up by clients but "we that is not the direction we wanted to take''.

Twenty percent of the offering was sold to Hemisphere clients with the remainder invested by Bermuda sources, he added.

He estimated about 500 people attended private and public presentations during the IPO.

Not only did the offer prove popular, it also quashed any speculation that the Island's investors might not have enough capital to make the offering a success.

Almost all the company's employees, about 40 are employed on the Island with five working out of Cayman, are now shareholders, he continued.

"I never wanted Hemisphere to be just a mutual fund manager,'' he said.

When he founded Hemisphere in 1981, Mr. Wetherhill believed it was paramount to have the company operate from the jurisdiction where it was registered.

"I guess our philosophy worked,'' he said.

With the IPO completed and 320 new shareholders, Hemisphere is now expanding its trust fund operation and hiring a new director.

Plans are almost complete to bring a trust fund professional into the Hemisphere fold by April 1.

That person will likely come from Jersey in the Channel Islands.

As well as finding the "right person'' for the trust fund directorship, Mr.

Wetherhill said he likely has found the "right person'' to head up their 50 percent-owned Cayman-based Hemisphere Fund Management Ltd.

And last November, Hemisphere was given approval from the Caymanian government to operate a second company, a wholly-owned subsidiary called Hemisphere Fund Managers Ltd., in Cayman.

Hemisphere currently has three active Bermuda subsidiaries and a 50 percent joint venture in Cayman, Hemisphere Management (Cayman) Ltd.

Until finalised, it would be premature to say who the company has approached, he added.

Mr. Wetherhill, who received his CA designation in 1971, came to Bermuda to work as an accountant and in 1981 founded Hemisphere Management Ltd., now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hemisphere Group Ltd., said he sees his future as one of changing directions amid the group's growth.

By the end of 1995, Hemisphere hopes to have a presence on the Isle of Man. It will use this location as an arm to access Europe.

Hemisphere is also eying the British Virgin Islands as a location for a future company.

And an insurance vehicle may become part of the group's structure as well, he revealed.

One of the group's eight subsidiaries, Hemisphere Fund Management Ltd., a Bermuda company providing investment and brokerage services, is due for future activation.

"I someday see myself in the roving ambassadorial role,'' he said of his own future with the group.

Mr. Wetherhill, Mr. Joseph Kelly and Ms Margaret Every, retain 53 percent ownership of Hemisphere, with Mr. Wetherhill and his wife Mrs. Christine Wetherhill being the principals.