Montpelier Re has agreed to buy the renewal rights of fellow Bermuda re/insurer Torus’s property catastrophe reinsurance book of business.Terms were not disclosed, but under the agreement, Torus will provide sidecar capacity to Montpelier from the start of next year.Torus said it would continue to write casualty and speciality reinsurance out of its Bermuda office.A spokeswoman for Torus told The Royal Gazette that some of the “relatively small” property catastrophe team would have the option to move to Montpelier with the book of business, while the rest could remain with Torus’s team writing casualty and speciality reinsurance lines.“Torus will continue with its reinsurance presence in Bermuda, which will gradually expand over time,” the spokeswomen added. “Our holding company is domiciled in Bermuda and that does not change with the news of this agreement.”Torus chief executive officer Clive Tobin said: “Torus’s strategy remains to build a global speciality insurer with niche exposure to reinsurance. With the continued expansion opportunities we see in our insurance operations, along with our modest ambitions for niche reinsurance, we have determined it is more effective for our catastrophe reinsurance business to be integrated into the larger Montpelier portfolio, and for us to continue our catastrophe reinsurance participation through a sidecar arrangement.“We will continue to write casualty and speciality reinsurance through our Bermuda team under the experienced leadership of David Whiting.”Friday’s announcement came a month after the departure from the Bermuda office of Tim Mardon, who was Torus’s chief underwriting officer of reinsurance and who left to join Ace Tempest Re.Simultaneously, Mr Mardon’s number two Jon Sullivan, who was based in the UK, having relocated from Bermuda two years ago to open Torus Re’s office in London.Christopher Harris, the president and CEO of Montpelier, said: “The acquisition of these renewal rights and accompanying sidecar capacity further enhances our position in one of our core markets at a time when conditions are visibly improving.”Torus was launched in Bermuda three years ago. It has grown into a global insurance and reinsurance company with more than 600 employees in 13 offices in Bermuda, Europe and the US.In late 2008, the company bought the Bermuda reinsurance operations of hedge fund Citadel, New Castle Re and CIG Re. Torus’s Bermuda office has focused solely on reinsurance since March, when the group’s excess liability operation on the Island was closed down.