GoshawK was given a vote of confidence when its lending bank, Barclays, bought 5.5 million shares in the company.

Barclays bought the 3.14% stake on 5 January after agreeing a debt restructuring deal with the company reported in last week's Insurance Times.

GoshawK executive chairman Paul Spencer said the mood among GoshawK's bankers had changed radically since they effectively pulled the plug last year.

Their decision last year to call time on the company's loss making Lloyd's operation led to its closure, the departure of chief executive Chris Fagan and a refocusing on the profitable Bermuda-based reinsurer, GoshawK Re.

Spencer said: "This has given GoshawK Re the financial support it needs to write the 1 January renewals.

"When the banking covenants were breached, Bermuda stopped writing altogether.

"What this has done is to enable it to write the same amount of business as when everything was hunky-dory."