BF&M Limited has acquired 352,279 of its shares from The Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company Limited and subsequently cancelled them.

The action involving the two companies stems back to 1991 when the local and international businesses of BFMIC, a joint stock company with limited liability, were split. This created BF&M, the profitable local insurance division and left BFMIC with the debt ridden international segment. It went bust two years later with a reported debt of approximately $1 billion owed to its creditors.

As part of a settlement with BF&M, BFMIC liquidators secured options for 1.1 million shares in BF&M.

Friday?s action represented the exercise of the second of three tranches of the planned acquisition of 1,056,596 shares from BFMIC.

The first tranche consisting of 352,279 shares was acquired in March this year and the third and last tranche of 352,038 shares will be acquired on December 31, 2006.

The price to be paid by BF&M for this tranche and the third and last one, will be calculated as ten percent above the weighted average closing price of the shares of the Company traded on the Bermuda Stock Exchange over the period 180 days immediately prior to the value date.