Torus Insurance has announced that it is offering up to $50 million excess liability capacity which can be accessed through its new Bermuda office.

Commenting on the announcement, David Perez, Torus' president and chief underwriting officer - Global Casualty said: "Our capacity can respond in virtually any class of business and comes when clients are looking to diversify their programmes as well as source additional capacity.

"At a time when many established casualty markets are experiencing a significant intellectual capital drain in the underwriting sector, and buyers are developing new opinions of carrier acceptability, we have created a premier capacity alternative to address this fundamental shift in our industry.

"In this environment, the value of customer relationships and communication has never been more important, and with a highly experienced team, we're well placed to demonstrate the benefits which working with Torus can deliver."

Torus, which has operating subsidiaries in Bermuda, the US and the UK, provides specialty property and casualty insurance and reinsurance products.

Areas of expertise include energy, power, utility and construction as well as other highly engineered risk classes. Torus carries a group rating of A - (excellent) from A.M. Best and has capital in excess of $700 million provided by First Reserve Corporation.

Torus is led by chief executive officer Clive Tobin, formerly the CEO of XL Insurance.