Mark Byrne has stepped down from the board of Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings, the company he co-founded in Bermuda five years ago.

The company also announced yesterday that it would pay more than $100 million to buy shares and a warrant owned by companies associated with Mr Byrne.

Mr Byrne stepped down as executive chairman in May this year. At that time, he told The Royal Gazette that he planned to sail around the Pacific Ocean for a year with his family, checking out some business opportunities in Asia en route.

In a statement, Mr Byrne said: “I very much appreciate the board’s thanks and gratitude and am confident that the future of Flagstone is in solid hands.”

The company, founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in late 2005, has since redomiciled its holding company to Luxembourg, but maintains an underwriting operation in Bermuda.

Daniel James, Flagstone’s chairman, said: “As one of our founders and executive chairman, Mark was instrumental in establishing and building Flagstone into the company it is today.

“On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to thank Mark for his service and commitment to Flagstone these past five years, and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”

Flagstone (Bermuda) Holdings Ltd said it had agreed to purchase just over eight million shares of Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings SA owned by companies associated with Mr. Byrne for $91.86 million.

The shares were sold for $11.4823 apiece, a price based on a discount to the trailing average closing stock price. The purchase is equivalent to 10.4 percent of Flagstone’s outstanding shares before the transaction.

Additionally, Flagstone paid $13.5 million to a company associated with Mr Byrne for a warrant issued at the time Flagstone was founded.

Yesterday, Flagstone’s shares fell five cents to close on $12.20 in New York Stock Exchange trading.