extending its workers' compensation and medical insurance business.

Mutual Risk announced yesterday it bought CompFirst, Inc and Avreco Corp.

Georgia-based CompFirst is a managing general agent specialising in workers' compensation and excess medical stop loss and had revenue in 1997 of about $3 million.

"CompFirst places special emphasis on managed care and provides extensive managed care services in addition to producing and underwriting business,'' the company stated in a press release. "For a number of years, CompFirst has acted as the underwriter of a workers' compensation programme written by Mutual Risk's subsidiary Legion Insurance Company. The acquisition will facilitate the expansion of this programme.'' Mutual Risk will also use CompFirst's managed care services for some of its other workers' compensation programmes.

Avreco, a Chicago-based company with revenues of about $4 million, is a specialty brokerage operation dealing with medical malpractice, excess property and professional liability. Avreco will become part of Mutual Risk's Professional Underwriters Corp. programme management subsidiary.

Mutual Risk did not reveal the terms of the acquisitions. Mutual Risk provides risk management services to clients and financial services to offshore mutual funds and other companies.

In 1997 about 57 percent of the company's fee income came from workers' compensation insurance.