Company Profile: Odyssey Re (Bermuda)

Odyssey Re (Bermuda) is to cease trading following a ratings downgrade by ratings company Standard & Poor's (see page 10). The company hinted in its annual report for 1999 that trading conditions might move Canadian parent Fairfax into a sale: “Our clients and brokers will be aware that, as a result of a strategic decision by Odyssey Re Group, the property catastrophe business underwritten by Odyssey Re Bermuda (ORB), with its heavy emphasis on retrocessional business, is not expected to remain part of the Fairfax family in the longer term,” said chairman Michael Watson.