ultimate parent company from the UK to Bermuda. Willis Group Holdings Limited has been formed specifically for this purpose.

A spokesman in London said they were not permitted by strict Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules, to give any further information about the move at this stage.

However Willis already has a staffed management office in Bermuda at the Perry Building on Church Street in Hamilton. Staff at this address were unable to comment on whether this will also be the office for the new parent company.

The new company has announced its intention to make an initial public offering of shares of its common stock and to file a registration statement under the US Securities Act in respect of the proposed offering. The company has not said how much stock it plans to sell or where it will be listed.

Willis had been publicly quoted from 1976 until it reverted to being a private company through a $1.35 billion buy out by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 1998. KKR owns about 74 percent of Willis and has said it has no intention to sell shares in the proposed offering.

This means there may be a sale of shares by members of the consortium of five international insurers who bought the rest of Willis. At the time of the buy out these insurers wanted to have alternatives to the increasingly dominant big two brokers, Marsh and Aon. The five in the buy out were Guardian Royal Exchange, Royal & Sun Alliance, Chubb Corp., Hartford Financial Services and Travelers Property Casualty.

Analysts estimate Willis could be valued at about $1.7 billion. The group employs 12,500 people in 235 offices in 73 countries. In Bermuda the company provides all aspects of captive formation and management through Willis Management, and through Willis it acts as a broker for all classes of international insurance and reinsurance, specialising in casualty, property, directors & officers, treaty and financial reinsurance.

Over 170 years old, Willis has a long history of mergers and acquisitions, the first merger occurring in 1898. Mergers and acquisitions followed in 1928, 1963, 1990 ( when it became Willis Corroon) and then 1998. In 1999 the group's operations were amalgamated under the name of Willis Group.