Belco Holdings Ltd. has changed its name to Ascendant Group Ltd. after being approved by shareholders at its Annual General Meeting.

The resolution, which was approved at the meeting held at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, will better position Belco, Bermuda Gas and PureNERGY Renewables to pursue new growth opportunities, free of any restrictions.

The energy provider has also carried out a management reshuffle, with William DeSilva Jr., senior vice-president of administration at Belco, becoming executive vice-president of the Ascendant Group overseeing Bermuda Gas and PureNERGY, as well as business development, and Andrew Parsons, senior vice-president of finance at Belco, being appointed executive vice-president of Belco, with support from senior vice-president of operations Len Malloy and senior vice-president of engineering Robert Steynor.

Meanwhile Jenny Smatt-Atkins has been promoted from vice-president of human resources at Belco to senior vice-president of human resources at the Ascendant Group, Linda Smith, senior vice-president of corporate relations will look after corporate relations, communications and marketing for the Ascendant Group and its subsidiaries, and Damon Wade, vice-president of customer services and solutions at Belco, will move to Bermuda Gas as senior vice-president and general manager.

The move for the name change was announced in a letter to shareholders by Vince Ingham, president and CEO of Belco. It read: "The name change positions the parent company to grow through diversification in energy and infrastructure businesses.

"By building on our core strengths, including engineering and technical capacity, complex project management experience, and industrial and large commercial plant expertise, we can develop new business opportunities that will add value to the parent company outside of an increasingly regulated electricity business."

Mr. Ingham also revealed in his letter that the process of dismantling, shipping back to the UK, repairing and returning the 60-tonne Belco engine which suffered a major alternator failure last month will take at least seven months.

The failure will impact the company's operating costs, including higher fuel costs and overtime expenses may be as high as $2.5 million, Mr. Ingham forecasted, with each operating group reviewing their budgets to the end of the year.

The company has also declared a dividend of 21.25 cents for the second quarter of 2009.