Bermuda-based Max Re Capital Ltd. today announced that it will seek shareholder approval to change the company's name from Max Re Capital Ltd. to Max Capital Group Ltd.
Shareholders will be asked to vote on the change at the company's 2007 annual general meeting, May 4.
The decision to change the name reflects the company's strategic evolution from its initial focus on reinsurance seven years ago to a balanced mix of specialty insurance and reinsurance products today, the company said in a statement.
The most recent step in this evolution is a plan to launch a new U.S. excess and surplus lines subsidiary, Max Specialty Insurance Company. Max Specialty will be based in Richmond, Va., and will have offices in Atlanta, San Francisco and Philadelphia. (For details about Max Specialty's business strategy and focus, see the National Underwriter Feb. 26 print edition, page 17.)
Max Re was originally launched in 2000 with a model focused on writing finite casualty reinsurance contracts. A few years later, post-9/11 price hikes and increased buyer appetite for more traditional risk-transfer products prompted the company to grow a more traditional casualty reinsurance book.
Two years later, the company also started writing insurance, targeting areas where it said it could offer solutions to clients facing market challenges–subsequently growing the insurance book in lines like medical malpractice, product and professional liability, and more recently launching an aviation unit in Dublin.
If the proposal to change the company's name receives the necessary shareholder approval, Max Re said it will change its ticker symbol for the Nasdaq Global Select Market and the Bermuda Stock Exchange from MXRE, to MXGL.
At the same time and also subject to shareholder approval, Max Re's Bermuda-based operating company, currently known as Max Re Ltd., will adopt the new name Max Bermuda Ltd.
In a statement, W. Marston Becker, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, said the proposed name change "will more closely align the company's name with its products and services now that we have expanded well beyond reinsurance operations."
Mr. Becker was appointed CEO of Max Re in mid-November, replacing Robert Cooney who resigned when the company announced an internal investigation of some finite reinsurance contracts.
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