NU Online News Service, Oct. 28, 3:15 p.m. EDT

The Navigators Group, Inc. announced that its principal underwriting agency subsidiary, Navigators Management Company, Inc., has established Navigators Re, a unit focused on developing specialty assumed reinsurance business.

"As a global specialty insurer, there are certain product lines and geographies where a reinsurance approach is a more efficient and practical manner in which to participate in the market," Stan Galanski, president and chief executive officer of Navigators said in a statement. "Navigators Re will complement our existing insurance business and will be part of our culture that emphasizes specialization, underwriting discipline and a long-term commitment to the markets we enter."

Clay Bassett, Navigators' chief underwriting officer and chief risk officer, who has assumed the additional role of president of Navigators Re said, "Navigators Re will focus on specialty niches that provide geographic, product and cycle diversification to the Group underwriting portfolio."