Shareholders have approved XL Capital Ltd.'s plan to redomesticate to Ireland and to change its name to "XL Group".

The Bermuda-based global re/insurer announced the news late on Friday after a special shareholder meeting and added that it hoped to realise the plans by July.

XL's holding company is currently based in the Cayman Islands and the company's chief executive officer Mike McGavick spelled how the switch to the Emerald Isle would benefit the insurer.

"We are grateful to our shareholders for supporting this initiative," Mr. McGavick said. "We believe that our redomestication to Ireland will offer us opportunities to reduce certain risks and reinforce our reputation across our global business platforms. We look forward to the successful completion of this initiative this summer."

XL will seek approval for the redomestication from the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands at a hearing scheduled for May 20, 2010.

When XL first revealed its intentions to redomesticate in January, Mr. McGavick said the company's substantial operations in Bermuda would not be affected.

XL has followed a similar path to Ace Ltd., which moved its holding company from the Cayman Islands to Switzerland two years ago.

Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Ltd. also announced this year that it intends to move its holding company from Bermuda to Luxembourg.

Offshore financial centres like Cayman and Bermuda have come under increasing scrutiny from world leaders since the financial crisis of 2008, as the larger countries seek extra tax revenues to cope with their skyrocketing public debts.

The fear of potentially harmful US tax legislation in the pipeline has persuaded many offshore-based companies to move their place of incorporation to larger countries, like Ireland and Switzerland, which do have tax treaties with the US.

The past two years have seen the departures to Europe of several companies who had minimal physical presence, but enjoyed tax advantages from the Island's zero percent tax rate on corporate profits. They include Tyco International, Tyco Electronics, Covidien, Accenture, Transocean, Ingersoll-Rand, Cooper Industries and Warner Chilcott.

Ireland is a member state of the European Union and is already the home of the headquarters of XL's European operations.

XL shareholders also elected three directors, Joseph Mauriello, Eugene McQuade and Clayton Rose, at the company's annual general meeting, also held on Friday.

The XL board also declared a quarterly dividend of 10 cents per ordinary share, payable on June 30 to ordinary shareholders of record as of June 15. The company will announce its first-quarter financial results after US stock markets close tomorrow.