Torrenzano Group

AlphaStar Insurance Group, formerly Stirling Cooke, has reached an agreement to sell its subsidiary, Realm National Insurance Company, to an Atlanta-based company for $8 million.The proposed buyer is Flagship Holdings Inc., according to filings at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, where AlphaStar is in chapter 11 proceedings.

Bermuda-domiciled AlphaStar Insurance Group Ltd. and 11 of its subsidiaries have applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York. The group is seeking breathing room while it seeks buyers for its assets, including policy-issuing subsidiary Realm National Insurance Company, for which AlphaStar "is no longer able to provide capital".

Don Schuster, of The Torrenzano Group, of New York, was hired by Stirling Cooke earlier this year to improve its public relations, which, until that point, included a policy of not taking Inside Bermuda's telephone calls. However, as you should gather from a question and answer session below, the main change from the 'No Comment' days of Mark Cooke and Nicholas Brown, who have both been fired as officers in recent months, is that the company now takes more words to say not very much at all.