largest international reinsurers for an undisclosed price.

Gerling Global Reinsurance Corp. of Cologne, Germany, said its acquisition of American-owned Rex Re concludes an agreement announced in July.

Gerling Global, together with US subsidiary Gerling Global US Investments Inc.

(GGUSI), also completed the acquisition of Constitution Re Corp. (CRC) and its subsidiaries.

Gerling Global spokeswoman Alison Hein said Rex Re, a Constitution Re subsidiary, had been operated in Bermuda for two years by captive manager Johnson & Higgins (J&H).

Its management would have been absorbed into the captive management operations of J&H Marsh & McLennan, as part of the global take-over of J&H by Marsh & McLennan Companies.

Ms Hein said, "An important acquisition was the Constitution purchase, which has a lot of synergy with the Gerling Global Reinsurance Corp. of America (GGRCA). We will be blending those two entities.

"The Rex Re acquisition is completely separate. Cologne operations will be looking into the utilisation of Rex Re from the German side. What that would mean, I really couldn't say right now.'' Rex Re was designed since July 1996 to act as a quota share reinsurer for Constitution Re, to provide stop-loss and aggregate `cat' protection and to write third party reinsurance.

Chairman of the Board of Management of Gerling Global Re Norbert Strohschen observed, "The acquisition of Constitution Re has strengthened our international presence, and has allowed the Gerling Group to achieve a quantum leap in the US reinsurance market.

"During the past two years, the Gerling Group has invested more than $1 billion to build and enhance our US franchise. We are confident that the strategic decision to strengthen our US operations will result in significant advantages to clients and brokers.'' Gerling Global Re's US operations and recent investments include the following companies held by GGUSI: GGRCA, Gerling Global Financial Products, and Gerling Global Life Reinsurance Company.