Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd. Announces the Sale of Common Shares by Sha

    Business Editors

    HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2005--Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:MRH) announced today that on March 7, 2005, certain of its founding shareholders sold an aggregate of 3,704,924 common shares of the Company under the Form S-3 shelf registration statement which was declared effective on February 23rd, 2004. Goldman Sachs is acting as the sole manager for the offering.
    The selling shareholders are Cypress Associates II (Cayman) L.P. and entities associated with it and DLJMB Overseas Partners III, C.V. and associated funds.
    Montpelier will not sell any common shares in the offering. The selling shareholders will receive all of the net proceeds.
    This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the common shares in any state in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.
    Any offering will be made only by means of a written prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Copies of the written prospectus, when available, may be obtained from Goldman, Sachs & Co., 85 Broad Street, New York, New York 10004, Attention: Prospectus Department (telephone no. 212-902-1171).
    Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd., through its operating subsidiary Montpelier Reinsurance Ltd., is a premier provider of global property and casualty reinsurance and insurance products. Montpelier Reinsurance Ltd. is rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best Company, "A3" (Good) by Moody's Investor Service and "A-" (Strong) by Standard & Poor's, and was founded in December 2001. During the 12 months ended December 31st, 2004, Montpelier underwrote $837 million in gross premiums written. Shareholders' equity at December 31st, 2004 was $1.8 billion. Additional information can be found in Montpelier's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Application of the Safe Harbor of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

    This press release contains, and Montpelier may from time to time make, written or oral "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside Montpelier's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. In particular, statements using words such as "may", "should", "estimate", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "believe", "predict", "potential", or words of similar import generally involve forward-looking statements.

    Important events and uncertainties that could cause the actual results, future dividends or future repurchases to differ include, but are not necessarily limited to: market conditions affecting Montpelier's common share price; our short operating and trading history; our dependence on principal employees; the cyclical nature of the reinsurance business; the levels of new and renewal business achieved; opportunities to increase writings in our core property and specialty reinsurance and insurance lines of business and in specific areas of the casualty reinsurance market; the estimates reported by syndicates under existing QQS contracts; the inherent uncertainties of establishing reserves for loss and loss adjustment expenses, particularly on longer-tail classes of business such as casualty; unanticipated adjustments to premium estimates; the possibility of severe or unanticipated losses from natural or man-made catastrophes; the impact of terrorist activities on the economy; competition resulting from: growing capital levels in the reinsurance industry, in some cases, declining demand due to, among other things, increased retentions by cedants, and other factors; and rating agency policies and practices. Montpelier's forward-looking statements concerning market fundamentals could be affected by changes in demand, pricing and policy term trends and competition. These and other events that could cause actual results to differ are discussed in detail in "Risk Factors" contained in Item 1 of Montpelier's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Montpelier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made.

--30--DP/ny*

CONTACT: Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd., Hamilton Treasurer: Neil McConachie, 441-296-9576

KEYWORD: INTERNATIONAL LATIN AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: INSURANCE BANKING SOURCE: Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd.

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