acquisitions made in the last 12 months.

Chairman, president and CEO Brian Duperreault has overseen significant growth in the company, including significant attempts to diversify the book of business.

ACE, founded primarily as an excess liability insurer, has expanded into the Lloyd's of London market. The company just last week said it had entered into a contract to acquire Ockham Holdings Plc, which owns two Lloyd's managing agencies.

In addition, ACE owns a majority interest in Methuen Group Ltd. and provides corporate capital to Lloyd's syndicates managed by Methuen's managing agency.

These syndicates have a total underwriting capacity of 366 million ($603.6 million) in 1996.

And effective July 1, 1996, ACE acquired Bermuda-based property catastrophe reinsurer, Tempest Reinsurance Company Ltd.

The acquisitions helped ACE's earned premium jump nearly 62 percent in the fourth quarter to September 30 from $110.6 million to nearly $179 million, when compared to the 1995 fourth quarter. Over the year earned premium rose nearly 37 percent from nearly $428.7 million to more than $587.2 million, when compared to 1995 figures.

Losses and loss expenses similarly have been increased more than 44 percent for the fourth quarter to nearly $130.4 million, and nearly 33 percent for the full year to nearly $464.9 million.

After ACE announced a $289.7-million profit for the year to September 30, Mr.

Duperreault said: "I think what we really will have to do next year is maximise the potential of what we've just acquired. It's a natural process of absorbing the acquisitions we made this year. We've been very active.

"It's a natural thing to make sure that they have been brought into the organisation and that they are operating with maximum efficiency. And that's what we will concentrate on.

"If a market opportunity arose, we would certainly seize it, but the most likely thing to occur next year is that we will work on the things that we've just bought.'' The ACE group of companies specialises in catastrophe insurance for a diverse group of international clients. ACE Ltd.'s Bermuda subsidiaries are leading providers of high level excess and directors & officers liability insurance, and also provide satellite, aviation, excess property and financial lines coverage.

Mr. Duperreault said ACE has secured about $118 million ($194.6 million) of capacity for the underwriting year 1997 through Methuen.

He noted: "That is a pretty significant amount. What the net written premium will be under that is difficult to say at the moment, but I have been using roughly a two-thirds rule of thumb. It could be less.'' The full effect of Methuen is not expected to be completely reflected on ACE's books until 1998.

While there has been some success at growing the satellite, aviation financial lines and excess property business, the once core D&O business has fallen victim to market pressures.

Mr. Duperreault said: "It's a competitive market and I don't see much signs of that changing in the near term. We have the ability to develop our D&O book outside of the US and that is positive.

"I don't think that you can find a market that doesn't have some competitive pressures, so we try not to focus on that, but go about the professional work of underwriting. I certainly hope that we can further develop our financial lines. We've had a lot of interest and seen good business activity. I expect that it will continue to develop.'' ACE has remained prudent in its reserving policy. Mr. Duperreault said that loss ratios were comparable to prior years, possibly slightly better and there was nothing significant in terms of loss activity for the year.