Bermuda insurance giant ACE Ltd reported in an advance highlight of its earnings heavy losses after being hit by large claims for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11.

The early release was made after announcing a public offering to raise about $1 billion of its ordinary shares and a spokeswoman said it was made to give its shareholders the most up to date information available. The full release will be made next week.

ACE joins its rival XL Capital, which released its results on Wednesday, in showing a large loss for the third quarter of 2001 following the terrorist attacks.

ACE said it paid out $558.8 million after tax in related claims, in line with its forecasts.

Including those claims plus realised investments, ACE reported a net loss of $442.6 million, or $1.88 a share, after deducting preferred dividends, compared with net profit of $140.8 million, or 58 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding realised investments, the firm lost $390.1 million, or $1.66 a share. A year ago ACE reported a profit of $150.6 million, or 62 cents a share for the same period.

ACE reported net gains of $390.1 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2001, or a loss, after deducting preferred dividends, of $1.66 per share, compared with income excluding net realised gains of $150.6 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2000, or earnings per share of $0.62.

The company said if it had not been hit by the September 11 events, excluding ACE's income, excluding net realised gain for the quarter ended September 30, 2001, would have been $168.7 million and earnings per share, after deducting preferred dividends, would have been $0.68 per share on a diluted basis.

Gross premiums written during the quarter increased by 25.1 percent to $2.5 billion, compared with $2 billion for the comparable quarter last year.

During the 2001 third quarter, ACE had net realised losses, net of tax, of $52.5 million, compared with net realised losses of $9.8 million for the same quarter last year.

ACE said it has started a public offering of approximately $1 billion of its ordinary shares, plus up to an additional $150 million of ordinary shares to cover over-allotments and said that subject to market and other conditions, ACE expected the transaction to be completed in the near future.

The company said it intends to deploy the new capital by, among other things, expanding its net underwriting capacity, either through internal growth and/or through acquisitions of lines of business or companies.

The results exceeded Wall Street's average forecast of a loss of $1.61 per share, but within a range of a loss of $1.55 to $1.75 per share, according to analysts polled by research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.