Boasting an impressive investment portfolio of $28.5 billion, ACE Ltd trades on the New York Stock Exchange and is covered by most of Wall Street’s major security houses having accrued assets of more than $49 billion.

ACE Limited jumpstarted the development of Bermuda’s insurance industry, leading it to its current position today as the world’s risk capital.

AS ACE LIMITED celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, an outstanding 2004 has given the Bermudian insurance pillar extra reason to celebrate after net income topped $1billion to underscore the company’s remarkable success. Since its foundation in the mid-eighties, it has evolved from providing two specialty lines of business to becoming one of only a handful of truly worldwide property and casualty insurers and reinsurers. Today ACE is a global player with a presence in over 50 countries and a full spectrum of covered risks, boasting an unparalleled geographic and product diversity and employing over 8,000 staff.

Established in 1985 by a consortium of Fortune 500 companies to provide hard-to-find excess liability coverage, ACE channeled its growth strategy into product diversification and acquisitions. According to Chairman Brian Duperreault, a series of acquisitions between 1995 and 2000 provided the company with its global reach while expanding its product portfolio. “It’s really been in the last ten years that we have grown our product line. We made a decision in 1994 to widen our focus so we started developing new capabilities, selling more products to existing clients and increasing capital. Then we started to acquire, highlighted by the 1999 purchase of CIGNA Corporation,” he explains. ACE increased its product base through bringing together a variety of distinct companies, each with its own product focus and geographical scope. The acquisition of CIGNA represented ACE’s largest coup – upping staff members from 600 to 8,000 overnight and substantially increasing the company’s global presence. “With our six previous acquisitions we were a decent-sized company, but still relatively small,” says Mr. Duperreault. “But the 600 staff members we did have were all top quality people and that allowed us to make that next huge leap in the CIGNA acquisition. I think that our patience and perseverance in not settling for second best gave us the potential, and we seized the opportunity.”

BRIAN DUPERREAULT Chairman of Ace Limited

One of the greatest success stories in the history of the insurance industry worldwide, ACE now boasts an investment portfolio of $28.5 billion. ACE Limited trades on the New York Stock Exchange, and with assets of more than $49 billion it is covered by most of Wall Street’s major security houses.

An icon of Bermuda’s internationally renowned insurance industry, ACE has had considerable influence on the development of the island’s insurance sector and on the new wave of companies that set up there after September 11th and fashioned themselves on the ACE model of diversified product lines and broader geographical bases. Mr. Duperreault expects that other Bermudian companies will continue to follow suit. “When compared to other Bermuda companies, we are the largest and we have the most diversified portfolio, which I think has been an evolutionary process. More than 75% of our business is direct and only 15% is reinsurance, while most companies here are probably the other way around. We are also more diversified geographically. I would certainly expect some of the other companies to expand both in product line and geographical location. Bermuda is a wonderful place to do that; it is probably the ideal place to have a global insurance operation.”

Now well positioned to service both multi-national and local market needs, ACE is free to pursue its core vision – to excel as profitable underwriters, managing the evolving risks of large and medium-sized companies with a full range of products.

The company intends to continue to capitalize on the latest product and market opportunities in property and casualty insurance, and also use efficient and innovative distribution channels to provide accident and health, personal lines and life coverage to individuals. Moreover, ACE’s strong balance sheet provides a sound financial foundation for its continued growth.