OdysseyRe Announces Planned Commencement of Offering by Fairfax to Sell a Portion of its Ownership of OdysseyRe Common Shares.

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Odyssey Re Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ORH) announced today that Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited ("Fairfax") commenced an underwritten public offering to sell 9 million ORH common shares. Fairfax will grant the underwriters an option to purchase up to 1,350,000 additional shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. The proposed offering will be jointly led by Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC.

Fairfax, which will continue to own a majority of the shares of OdysseyRe after the proposed offering, intends to use the proceeds it receives from the proposed offering for general corporate purposes, which may include opportunistically effecting open market or privately negotiated repurchases of its outstanding debt or shares. OdysseyRe will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares.

This notice does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale. A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

A written prospectus relating to the offering, when available, may be obtained from Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking, Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, 8th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11220 (tel.: [phone]) or Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate, 375 Park Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10152 (e-mail: [e-mail]).

Odyssey Re Holdings Corp. is a leading worldwide underwriter of property and casualty treaty and facultative reinsurance, as well as specialty insurance. OdysseyRe operates through its subsidiaries, Odyssey America Reinsurance Corporation, Hudson Insurance Company, Hudson Specialty Insurance Company, Clearwater Insurance Company, Newline Underwriting Management Limited and Newline Insurance Company Limited. The Company underwrites through offices in the United States, London, Paris, Singapore, Toronto and Latin America. Odyssey Re Holdings Corp. is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ORH.

Certain statements contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following: a reduction in net income if the Company's loss reserves are insufficient; the occurrence of catastrophic events with a frequency or severity exceeding the Company's estimates; the lowering or loss of one of the Company's financial or claims-paying ratings, including those of the Company's subsidiaries; an inability to realize the Company's investment objectives; a decrease in the level of demand for the Company's reinsurance or insurance business, or increased competition; emerging claim and coverage issues; risks relating to ongoing investigations by U.S. government authorities; the risk that ongoing regulatory developments will disrupt the Company's business or mandate changes in industry practices that increase the Company's costs; changes in economic conditions, including interest rate, currency, equity and credit conditions; the Company's inability to access its subsidiaries' cash; loss of services of any of the Company's key employees; risks related to the Company's use of reinsurance brokers; failure of the Company's reinsurers to honor their obligations; regulatory and legislative changes; risks associated with the growth of the Company's specialty insurance business; and other factors that are described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as otherwise required by federal securities laws, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.