Torus Insurance announced today that it is offering up to $50million excess liability capacity to respond to shifting customeropinions about existing capacity providers.

David Perez, Torus' president and chief underwriting officer,global casualty, said: "At a time when many established casualtymarkets are experiencing a significant intellectual capital drainin the underwriting sector, and buyers are developing new opinionsof carrier acceptability, we have created a premier capacityalternative to address this fundamental shift in our industry."

Mr. Perez went on to tout the value of customer relationshipswith an experienced team that his outfit has assembled, noting thatthe capacity can respond in virtually any class of business.

The newly available capacity from Torus "comes when clients arelooking to diversify their programs as well as source additionalcapacity," Mr. Perez said in a statement.

Torus, launched in the middle of last year with more than $720million of capital provided by First Reserve, a Greenwich,Conn.-based private equity firm specializing in the energy sector,currently provides specialty property and casualty insurance andreinsurance products to a global client base through insurancesubsidiaries in the United Kingdom, United States and Bermuda.

The excess casualty capacity can be accessed through the Bermudaunit, Torus said.

Torus' main areas of expertise include energy, power, utilityand construction as well as other highly engineered riskclasses.