Company profile: Brasil Re

The Instituto de Resseguros do Brasil (IRB), the only reinsurer allowed in the market, was transformed from a state institution to a public limited company, IRB-Brasil Resseguros SA (Brasil Re), in 1997. The Brazilian government held all the voting shares in the company and distributed the rest among local insurers. The listing was widely publicised as the first step in the liberalisation of the Brazilian reinsurance market.