IPC Holdings Ltd. and Max Capital Group Ltd. today announced that they will merge to form a new Bermuda-based company.

Owners of Max Capital common shares will get 0.6429 IPC shares for each of their shares in a tax-free stock-for-stock merger, IPC said in a statement today. The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter.

The new merged holding company will be called Max Capital Group and will be based In Bermuda. Marston Becker, the current chief executive officer of Max, will be the president and CEO of the new entity.

IPC’s CEO Jim Bryce is to retire on June 30, after 35 years’ experience of property-catastrophe underwriting. Mr. Bryce will continue in a non-executive role as chairman of Max IPC Re Ltd. - the new name for IPCRe Ltd., IPC’s reinsurance operating company.

“Upon closing of the tax-free, stock-for-stock merger, IPC shareholders will own approximately 58 percent of the combined company,” IPC said in the statement.

In a joint statement, Mr. Bryce and Mr. Becker said: “We believe the combination of our companies will create a stronger, more diversified global underwriting franchise. IPC and Max have complementary businesses with very little overlap.”

Read more in the Business section of tomorrow’s edition of The Royal Gazette.