Group (IRMG) part of the largest independent provider of captive and risk engineering services in the world.

The Swiss Re subsidiary stands to benefit considerably by a letter of understanding signed Friday involving Luxembourg firm Gecalux, that promises to open new markets for all three firms. The transaction leading to a combined network is due to be completed at the end of next month.

Gecalux and IRMG's captive management operations now have combined premium and surplus under management in excess of $4 billion.

IRMG provides captive management, risk advisory and risk engineering services.

IRMG and Gecalux jointly concluded that together they could deliver a broader range of services to their clients.

IRMG's weakness was in Europe because of a lack of language skills. Gecalux, on the other hand, is the largest captive manager in Europe in terms of income, premium and surplus, operating in seven European languages.

But Gecalux only has a captive management operation in Luxembourg, in an environment where blue chip clients want more than one captive in one domicile.

President and CEO of IRMG, Gareth Bradburn, said, "When you are dealing with large fortune 500 type clients, more and more of them want one captive in Europe to handle European operations, but also a captive in Bermuda, Cayman or Vermont to handle US operations.

"Gecalux has not been in a position to do that until now. So, the two companies complement each other.

"And with the menu of services they provide in an allegiance with a small engineering group, by joining IRMG, the largest independent provider of engineering services worldwide, this offers a huge new range of loss prevention engineering services they could offer their clients as well.'' Swiss Re, one of the largest reinsurers in the world and a "AAA'' rated capacity provider, is a major player in the global alternative risk transfer (ART) market.

Swiss Re owns 70-percent of IRMG, which operates out of the Belvedere building in Hamilton, playing an integral part in the European reinsurer's strategy to supply high quality risk services through affiliated companies. Under the multi-million dollar deal, Swiss Re will own nearly 42 percent of Gecalux.

IRMG brings to the table traditional strength in property business, because of their strength in the complementary engineering business. Gecalux has always been strong in the credit and employee benefit areas.

Gecalux is very strong in Japan with massive international groups that require servicing in the US and all over the world in jurisdictions where IRMG have operations.

The Luxembourg firm had long been headed by founder, majority shareholder and chief executive, Roland Frere. He was the founder of the captive management movement in Luxembourg, as Fred Reiss was in Bermuda.

CEO Gareth Bradburn