New name, old results.

Bermuda-based AlphaStar Insurance Group Limited - formerly Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings Limited - has reported a net loss of $15.2 million.

It could be seen as a setback for chairman Stephen Crane, who recently voiced hope the company could turn its fortunes around and live up to its name

"In astronomy, the alpha star is the largest or brightest star in a constellation. Although the group still faces significant challenges, we hope to live up to our new name by using our assets intelligently to create value for shareholders," he said after the name change in September.

AlphaStar reported a net loss from all operations of $15.2 million for the third quarter ended September 30, 2002, or $1.60 on a per-share basis.

This compares to a net loss from all operations of $5.9 million for the same period in 2001.

Revenues were down in all three of the company's main business operations of insurance, programme business and brokerage compared to last year.

Despite the new name, the company has been unable to return to profit. It is now admitting a capital crisis and declining revenues, particularly in the program and insurance segments.

In addition to underwriting losses, the company is still under pressure from continuing costs of litigation in London.

To counter these issues, company says it is now considering several cost-cutting options including sale of subsidiaries, restructuring or elimination of certain operations, redundancies and delisting as a publicly traded company.

The company reported a net loss from continuing operations of $14.6

million for the third quarter, compared to a net loss from continuing operations of $2.5 million for the same period in 2001.

Included in the losses relating to the insurance sector was a charge of $2.0 million for losses by its major issuing subsidiary in excess of a specific loss ratio on business produced by the programme business segment

For the quarter ended September 30, 2002, total revenues from continuing operations were $10.0 million, a decrease of $2.7 million from $12.7 million in the third quarter of 2001.

The decrease in programme business revenue was due to a reduction in volume due to the imposition of more selective underwriting guidelines on continuing programmes.

Total expenses from continuing operations, including insurance costs, were $19.0 million, compared to $15.6 million in the same period of 2001. The income from discontinued operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2002 is primarily due to the sale of its wholly owned reinsurance segment, which resulted in the elimination of $4.8 million of accumulated deficit in the second quarter.