PartnerRe has become the Bermuda-based reinsurer this week to announce it is setting up a branch office in oil-rich Dubai.

The firm received approval to open an office from Dubai regulators and will begin underwriting operations at the start of next year.

The Dubai operation will be run by subsidiary Partner Reinsurance Europe and the new office will concentrate on regional support in property and construction lines of business in the Middle East.

John Ramesh will be senior executive officer of the new branch.

PartnerRe was taken over by Italian investment giants Exor earlier this year after a bitter battle with rival bidder reinsurance firm Axis.

Earlier this week both Axis and Qatar Re both announced they, like PartnerRe, are opening branch offices in the Dubai International Financial Centre.

For the year ended December 31, 2014, PartnerRe had total revenues were $6.5 billion.

At September 30, total assets were $22.0 billion, total capital was $7.6 billion and total shareholders’ equity attributable to PartnerRe was $6.8 billion.