Goshawk's senior executives are making a last-ditch attempt to salvage some of the company after it became the first insurer casualty of this year's catastrophic US hurricane season.
Following crippling losses from Hurricane Katrina, the company admitted this week it was faced with little option but to place its Bermudan reinsurance arm Rosemont Re into run-off, after failing to attract the capital required to keep the company afloat.
But directors Paul Spencer, Russell Brooke and Jonathan Beck are now understood to be courting Lloyd's players with a proposal for some form of 'enterprise value deal'.
This would involve a third party taking on Goshawk's existing team, technology platform and infrastructure and effectively allowing them to have a 'running start'.
It it believed that Chaucer, Amlin, Brit and a number of venture capitalists have a potential interest in capitalising on Goshawk's position in Bermuda.
Jonathan Beck, financial director of Goshawk, said: "In effect the Goshawk group is Rosemont Re and if that goes into run-off it spells the end of the company."
He added: "We have considered a number of proposals from capital providers, none of which have come to fruition. As we approach the renewals season we accept that this is becoming less and less likely.
"We also looked at some kind of rights issue, but that would have been highly dilutive. It would have been very difficult to raise sufficient capital for it to be worthwhile."
Goshawk acknowledged that its initial $25 to $30m Katrina loss estimates were substantially short of the mark. The real figure will be closer to $60m - enough to force the business to close.
Attempts to attract capital will not have been helped by the FSA's decision to fine the company £220,000 for breaches of its rules in 2002 and 2003 - prior to the current board's takeover in 2003.
The fine was levied against Goshawk subsidiary, Goshawk Syndicate Management. The regulator found that Goshawk's systems and controls had failed, primarily relating to its management of binding authority agreements.
