BF&M shareholders will receive an extra share for every ten they own in a one-for-ten stock dividend announced by the Bermuda insurer yesterday.

The dividend applies to shareholders of record as of February 29, 2008. In addition, the company raised its cash dividend by 25 percent from 16 cents to 20 cents for shareholders of record on March 31. BF&M shares rose 75 cents (four percent) on the Bermuda Stock Exchange yesterday to $19.50.

BF&M president and chief executive officer John Wight said yesterday that the board's decision had been based on the company's expansion and rising profits in recent years.

"Over the past few years, the earnings of BF&M have gone up quite substantially," Mr. Wight said. "In 2004, we made $9.9 million, in 2005 it was $16.9 million, and in 2006 it was up to $23.9 million."

The company, which specialises in life and health insurance as well as pensions, will announce its full-year results for 2007 in April. Its nine-month results, up to September 30, 2007, showed net income of $21.6 million, a new record for BF&M.

"With the increased earning capacity of the company, we wanted to return more value to the shareholders by way of a 10-percent stock dividend and an increased cash dividend," Mr. Wight added.

"Our hope is that the share price will increase. From a shareholder's point of view, you look for two things — the performance of a company and the dividend you can receive. I believe we have performed very well." Mr. Wight, who took the reins of BF&M at the start of 2005, has seen profits more than double in the space of three years.

One contributory factor was the company's acquisition of a majority interest (51.7 percent) in the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Ltd. in December 2005.

"We've now had the benefits of two successful years of performance in Barbados and we hope that continues," Mr. Wight added.

He said the company would be focusing on making the best of investments BF&M has made in recent years and integrating them fully into the group of companies.

Gross premiums written by BF&M in the first nine months of 2007 totalled $153.5 million and, as at September 30, 2007, the total assets for the BF&M consolidated group were listed as $640.1 million.