is looking toward retirement, he said yesterday.

And he confirmed he was selling some of his large stake of shares in car dealer Holmes, Williams & Purvey Ltd.

"At my age, as a plan, one would look to take some of their assets and turn them into cash,'' Mr. Pearman told The Royal Gazette . "After all, at 68, one would look to retire.'' Tipped as a potential successor to Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan, Mr. Pearman said he was talking about retirement not just from business, but politics, too.

He did not say how soon he planned to retire, but said: "It's time for me to consider retirement. I've been working consistently, non-stop, since I started work at age 13.'' "People speculate all kinds of things,'' he said about talk of him one day leading the United Bermuda Party. "I've never competed for it.'' However, he added, "I don't rule anything out in life.'' In addition to deputy premier, Mr. Pearman holds one of Bermuda's largest and most important Cabinet posts as Minister of Labour and Home Affairs.

When the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto quit Cabinet over Independence, Sir John asked Mr. Pearman to take on her Delegated and Legislative Affairs portfolio, too, with responsibilities including the Police and Bermuda Regiment.

And after taking on major duties during the early stages of the handover of the US Bases in Bermuda, Mr. Pearman was named to chair the Cabinet committee which prepared a controversial discussion paper on Independence. That post is expected to keep him in the public eye right up to the August 15 Independence referendum.

The Government work is on top of Mr. Pearman's job at Holmes, Williams & Purvey Ltd., where he rose to managing director after joining the company as a body repairman in 1950.

As for retiring from that job, it would happen "not necessarily soon,'' Mr.

Pearman said. "There is a management succession study going on now.'' HW&P, "like any other institution, has to plan its future direction.

"There's an in-depth study going on and the study may indicate there need be some changes in the near term over the next couple of years.'' If Mr. Pearman stepped down in about two years, that would roughly coincide with the expected life of the current Parliament.

First elected to the House of Assembly in 1983, Mr. Pearman represents the marginal constituency of Warwick East, where his running mate the Hon. Gerald Simons was defeated in the 1993 general election.

The Royal Gazette reported last month that Mr. Pearman and company chairman the Hon. Sir John Plowman were negotiating the sale of part of their ownership stakes in HW&P.

The company's share register showed Mr. Pearman as the company's single largest shareholder, with nearly 310,000 common shares.