A recruitment firm is searching for women accountants in Scotland to help solve a supposed shortage of female companionship in Bermuda, according to a newspaper report.

In an article headlined ?Wanted: women for sun, sea .. and sums?, Jane Bradley from the Edinburgh Evening News reported that an Edinburgh recruitment company is coming to the aid of ?some 400 lonely British male finance workers? currently based on the Island.

Ms Bradley wrote: ?While [the male accountants may enjoy high salaries, incredible working conditions, and the chance to go scuba-diving whenever they want, female company is in short supply.?

She reported that Think Global Recruitment, a specialist international recruitment consultancy for accountancy and finance professionals, has heard the pleas for female companionship.

Think Global Recruitment sends 200 to 300 accountants to Bermuda every year, but according to Ms Bradley?s article, less than a quarter of the firm?s employees are female. Abigail Stevens, the company?s managing director, recently learned of the male concern on a visit to Bermuda and is now working hard to bring in more female employees.

?During my last trip I asked the accountants what, if anything, they would wish for in 2005 and the answer was resounding - more female company,? Ms Stevens told the Edinburgh newspaper.

Unfortunately, for Bermuda-based males however their wish may not be as simple as it sounds. Ms Stevens said that while she was trying to get more women to come here, the real problem was that not very many women are accountants.

?We really want to send at least 100 female accountants to Bermuda this year, but at the moment, that seems impossible,? she said.

Male accountants however may take solace in the figures released in the July 2004 Bermuda census. While Bermuda may not be have as many female accountants as male accountants, of the estimated 64,935 people living here, there are 22,268 males and 22,703 females in the working population [aged 15-64.