Max Capital Group and IPC Holdings have moved to join forces in a deal valued at more than $900 million, with the boards of both companies unanimously approving an "amalgamation agreement" that would make the united firm the seventh-biggest in Bermuda.

"This is not a transaction about expense savings, but [one] about growth and long-term value creation for our collective shareholders," said W. Marston Becker, chairman and chief executive officer of Max Capital–a specialty insurer and reinsurer created in Bermuda in 2002–during a conference call announcing the deal.

IPC President and CEO James Bryce, explaining one impetus of the agreement from the perspective of his company–a property-catastrophe reinsurer that existed for more than 16 years–said that after a trio of hurricanes in 2005 (Katrina, Rita and Wilma), "it became apparent…that the monoline business model would make it difficult to build and sustain value for [IPC] shareholders over the long term."