derelict Bermudiana Hotel possibly slipping away -- have started a mail-in campaign to politicians in a last-ditch bid to defeat a the Bermudiana Site Rehabilitation Act 1996 on second reading, The Royal Gazette has learned.

About 140 shareholders have been asked to write the Premier, the Minister of Finance, and their Member of Parliament said Bermuda Financial Centre Ltd.

president Neville Conyers, asking them to vote against the Private Members Bill which would grant an exemption from Bermuda's 60/40 rule, thereby clearing the way for off-shore insurers ACE and EXEL to develop the site.

"There's no other way to stop it (ACE/EXEL plan) unless we stop the Private Members Bill. Unless Parliament backs us on the 60/40 issue 140 local shareholders are going to be out of pocket. We'll be insolvent,'' said Mr.

Conyers.

Counted among that group is a scattering of UBP party members, Mr. Conyers included, who would not comment on reports of an impending storm brewing in the party over the issue.

Meanwhile former Minister of Works and Engineering Leonard Gibbons slammed a story last night by ZBM News which reported him in the forefront of opposition to relaxing the 60/40 rule.

"Their story was a total fabrication. I was never called or talked to by anyone at ZBM. I am not leading a faction trying to stop anything `at all costs','' he emphatically told The Royal Gazette .

He however refused to comment on whether he would vote for or against the bill when it is brought up for second reading, possibly by in March.

The bill, introduced in the House of Assembly by the PLP's Reginald Burrows last November, cleared committee without anyone appearing to oppose it, UBP MP and committee member Trevor Moniz said.

"We knew there were some people opposed to the bill but they never stepped forward,'' he said. "Their concerns are legitimate in a sense because this is a major exception to the law.''