Irish liability insurer Quinn-Direct is set to open an office on the UK mainland.
The insurer confirmed that it hopes to finalise a deal for an office in Manchester over the next two weeks.
The office will specialise in writing liability cover in the construction sector.
Commercial operations manager Trevor Shaw said: "The office will focus on employers' liability (EL) and public liability (PL) for the construction industry."
Shaw said the Manchester office would be targeting premium income of £100m as part of its business plan.
"We've already started writing business in the North West from our call centres in Ireland," Shaw said.
"We have a good understanding of the market in the North West as the construction industry has a long history of Irish influence."
Quinn Direct recently announced it had made a pre-tax profit of ¤52m (£36m) for the six months to the end of June 2003. This compared to a pre-tax profit of m (£23m) for the 2002 full year.
Premium income for the period totalled �m (£123m), compared to ¤256m (£178m) for the whole of 2002.
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