Holdings yesterday cut their ties with the venture.

Former Finance Minister Grant Gibbons, who is now Shadow Finance Minister, and former Centre Solutions boss David Brown yesterday issued a joint statement that their association with Gemini Re had been "suspended''.

Mr. Brown was set to become CEO while Dr. Gibbons would have served as chief financial officer of Gemini Re which had filed an initial public offering document proposing to raise $400 million and list on the Nasdaq.

Yesterday the pair blamed "strategic differences with other principals of the company as to how Gemini Re should be structured going forward''. And the statement noted that current weakness in the US public market for insurance initial public offerings had "also delayed the Gemini Re project''. But the statement said both Mr. Brown and Dr. Gibbons remained "committed to the underlying concept of the venture''.

A report in Miami-based offshore newsletter Inside Bermuda -- written by a former Royal Gazette journalist -- alleged one of the issues behind the two high-flyers' exodus "involved their compensation packages being reduced''.

Gemini Re's prospectus says it will focus on writing "long-duration risks, including traditional life and annuity, workers' compensation, medical malpractice and disability reinsurance as well as structured settlements''.

The Inside Bermuda report alleged there might be other problems down the road for the new venture.

"Gemini Re filed its S-1 Registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on January 7 and there are conflicting reports about the success, or lack thereof, of fund-raising efforts,'' the report said. "We have also been told that the company may have to change its name because Allianz already has a Cayman Islands-registered alternative risk vehicle with the word Gemini in its title.'' The report said Gemini Re was not the only Bermuda reinsurance start-up to experience problems in the capital-raising phase of development recently.

It said Global Markets Access shelved its plans to raise $200 million due to difficulties in raising the capital, even though the target had been reduced from an initial $350 million when the proposal was announced last November.

And Greenwich Holdings Ltd. had been "running a roadshow recently in an effort to raise $300 million''.