has resulted in Venton Underwriting Agency Ltd. (VUA) achieving its public offering target of $29.3 million, the bank revealed yesterday.

The bank and some of its international high net worth customers funded one investment vehicle, while Trident, which is backed in part by Bermuda-based Mid Ocean Reinsurance Company, exclusively capitalised the other.

With the new capital, VUA will underwrite insurance risks through three Lloyd's of London syndicates.

"In a difficult environment for the marketing of corporate capital for Lloyd's, I am pleased that the VUA has achieved its target of establishing our own dedicated corporate capital vehicles for 1995,'' said Mr. Jeremy Venton, VUA senior underwriter.

"The new capital raised, which on a fully paid basis is $29.3 million fulfills Venton's requirement for capacity to underwrite a total of $293.1 million in 1995,'' according to a bank release.

The combined capacity of both vehicles is about $53 million over the three Venton syndicates. Non-marine syndicate 376 will attract $31.7 million of the underwriting capacity, with around $14.3 million going to the newly-formed marine syndicate 1183 and $7.1 million to non-marine syndicate 1038.

Investors, private and corporate, contribute 20 percent up front with letters of credit or guarantees for the remaining 80 percent.

Bank of Butterfield executives could not be reached Yesterday afternoon for comment.

Mr. David Haigh, chief executive with Butterfield Securities in London, yesterday declined to indicate how much of the investment came from Trident or how much came directly from the Bank of Butterfield or from the bank's high net worth customers.

It was all "significant,'' he commented, adding a dominant portion of the investment was generated by Trident, which, through a newly-formed subsidiary, plans to acquire 25 percent of VUA's parent company.