during the first quarter of 2001 compared to the year before, after being hit by a one-off payment and investments nose-diving.

According to figures released yesterday, the company, which is building new headquarters on the site of the old Bermudiana Hotel, has been hit by an extraordinary payment of $22.6 million for changing its accounting procedure during the quarter.

It also reported net realised losses of $22.7 million during the quarter due to its investments losing ground during the quarter. During the same quarter last year the company showed net realised gains on investments of $47 million.

But the company's gross written premiums during the quarter soared 28 percent for the company, up from $1.997 billion in the first quarter of 2000 to $2.561 billion in the first quarter of 2001.

Its subsidiary ACE Bermuda did particularly well, more than doubling its gross written premiums during the quarter from $173 million in 2000 to $377 million this year.

Brian Duperreault, chairman and chief executive officer of ACE Limited, was upbeat about the quarter and said: "This was an excellent quarter for ACE with gross premiums up 28 percent and net operating income up 29 percent.

"In addition, it was the first time in quite a while that our results reflected the financial performance of the same business units in both periods.

"This highlights that the growth we achieved was organic as opposed to simply acquisition accretive.'' He said the company had felt the improvement in the markets and said his company was benefiting from the hardening markets.

Mr. Duperreault said: "We continue to see the markets improve in nearly all geographic areas and across most product lines and, as a global entity, ACE is benefiting from the hardening market in each of our reporting segments.'' Income excluding the investment losses and the charge for the new accounting standard (net of income tax) stood at $164 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2001, compared with $127 million for the same quarter in 2000.

The company reported earnings per share excluding the same figures and after deducting preferred dividends, was $0.65 for the current quarter compared with $0.58 for the same quarter last year.

The fully diluted book value per share of the company at March 31, 2001, was $23.82.

Net premiums written during the March 31, 2001, quarter were $1.7 billion compared with $1.5 billion for the same period in 2000. Net premiums earned during the quarter were up 24 percent to $1.4 billion from $1.1 billion for the same quarter in 2000.

Total assets stood at $32.9 billion for the quarter, up from $31.7 billion the year before.