was floated on the NASDAQ exchange in New York yesterday.

Mid Ocean's shares were trading at $29.25 in the afternoon -- up $4.75 on their opening price of $24.50 -- before closing at $28.50.

In all, 9.5 million shares were offered: 7.6 million in the United States, Canada and Bermuda, and 1.9 million elsewhere.

Concurrent with the public offering, 3.167 million shares are being sold directly to EXEL, Mid Ocean Re's largest shareholder. All of the shares were offered by Mid Ocean, which will be left with approximately 34.8 million shares outstanding after the offering.

The company's shares are listed on the NASDAQ National Market System under the symbol MOCNF.

Proceeds from the offering will be used to support Mid Ocean Re's future growth and to increase its underwriting capacity.

The lead underwriters were J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corporation and Smith Barney Shearson, Inc.

Mid Ocean, through its subsidiary Mid Ocean Re, provides property catastrophe and other reinsurance to insurers and reinsurers on a worldwide basis.

The company began operating last November with an initial capitalisation of over $360 million.

Since then, a number of other property catastrophe companies have set up in Bermuda, or are in the process of being formed here, including Renaissance Re, Tempest Re, Centre CAT, IPC Re and Global Capital Re.

Mid Ocean's stock offering brings the total amount of insurance capital which has been pledged to Bermuda over the past few months to more than $2.5 billion.