of its common stock. The company's net income rose 73 percent for the second quarter ended March 31 to $77.9 million from $56.8 million in the same period last year.

"We are pleased that expansion in our new areas, particularly property catastrophe, offset the decline in excess liability,'' Brian Duperreault, ACE's chairman, president and chief executive officer, told the Bloomberg news service.

The ACE group of companies provides insurance and reinsurance. ACE also owns three Lloyd's managing agencies. It bought catastrophe reinsurer Tempest Reinsurance Co. in July.

ACE also said it had appointed Thomas J. Neff to its board of directors. Mr.

Neff is the chairman of Spencer Stuart, an executive recruitment firm, in New York, where he has worked since 1976. Spencer Stuart specialises in chief executive officer and director assignments for Fortune 1000 companies.

Mr. Neff was the former chief executive officer of an information systems company and has held senior marketing positions with TWA. He was also a management consultant with McKinsey & Co.