ACE completes redomestication to Switzerland

HAMILTON, Bermuda--ACE Ltd.'s redomestication to Switzerland from the Cayman Islands was completed last week, and the insurer's holding company is now located in Zurich.

ACE shareholders approved the move at the company's annual general meeting in Bermuda on July 10.

As part of the redomestication, ACE last week announced the appointment of Olivier Steimer, chairman of Lausanne, Switzerland-based Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, to its board of directors. Swiss law requires companies incorporated in the country to have at least one director or executive officer living in Switzerland.

The company said it will maintain executive offices in Bermuda, and ACE Group Holdings executive offices will remain in New York.

Hamilton, Bermuda-based ACE is one of Bermuda's largest insurers and reinsurers, writing about $12 billion in net premiums in 2007.

ACE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Evan G. Greenberg said in a statement that the company is "grateful to our shareholders who understand the strategic wisdom of this move and overwhelmingly adopted all of our redomestication proposals."

ACE announced its plan to relocate in March, saying, "Switzerland affords us the security of a network of tax treaties," and a change of jurisdiction may "help reduce reputational, political, regulatory and financial risks" to the company.

ACE was replaced on the S&P 500 Index by MasterCard Inc. after the close of trading last Thursday. The move to Switzerland made the company ineligible for the U.S. index.