THIRD POINT RE TO OPEN LONDON OFFICE

Bermuda-based Third Point Re, set up earlier this year with the reported backing of New York-based hedge fund Third Point, Kelso, Pine Brook Partners and Dowling Capital, plans to open a London office via subsidiary Third Point Re Marketing (UK) Ltd, reports Bermuda's Royal Gazette. The London office, which will keep the reinsurer close to its potential customers, will be headed by Clare Himmer, previously head of treaty reinsurance and a senior vice president at Allied World Assurance. However, underwriting decisions are likely to continue to be made in Bermuda. Third Point Re, the brainchild of hedge fund entrepreneur Daniel Loeb at Third Point, recently hired Bryan Bumsted, formerly of Lancashire and Everest Re, and an expert in property-catastrophe retrocession, as well as Chris Conway, previously Assistant vice-president of Reinsurance Underwriting at Axis Re Bermuda.