The US reinsurance arm of a Bermuda-based company now in run off has been bought up for $43 million after several years on the selling block.

Overseas Partners?s subsidiary Opus Re is being acquired by Odyssey Re Holdings, it was revealed last night in a ratings announcement made by Standard & Poor?s.

Overseas Partners Limited, which went into run off in early 2002, had had hopes of selling Opus Re as a going concern. But it announced in a report earlier this year that Opus was now also in run off, after incurring losses that were expected to exceed premium earned.

OPL said the casualty and long tail business that Opus Re wrote previously was behind a net underwriting loss of $8.5 million posted by OPL during the first quarter of 2003. Now Odyssey Re has bought up Opus Re as a run off company.

There was no word yesterday on whether the development would impact the timing of investors eager to recoup their investment, with most of OPL?s shareowners being present or past staff of United Postal services (UPS). No one at OPL?s Bermuda office was available to speak with The Royal Gazette last night on the matter.

In years past, OPL had been one of the shining stars of Bermuda?s reinsurance sector but then came the shock announcement two years ago that it no longer had the support of its shareowners and was to go into run off.

At the time the privately-held company, set up in 1983, said it was bound by regulatory requirements to go into ?run off? rather than simply shut down, with the process expected to take between three to five years.

A financial filing earlier this year said it could take up to 20 years before it met ?run off goals and objectives?. Standard & Poor?s Ratings Services said its ratings on the buyer of Opus, Odyssey Re, would not see its ratings affected in the acquisition.

Of the deal, S&P said: ?In run-off since 2002, Opus Re?s book of business primarily consists of property/casualty reinsurance business written in 2001 and 2002, with no exposure to liabilities before these years.

The acquisition is relatively small, with Opus Re?s $161 million loss reserve base constituting about 4.5 percent of ORH?s $3.5 billion loss and loss adjustment expense reserves as of March 31, 2004. S&P expects the $43 million purchase price to be paid in cash, with no material change in Odyssey Re?s financial leverage.?

Odyssey said it expected the sale to close by September 30, in a July 2 Press statement.