Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) the holding company for Assured
Guaranty Corp. ("Assured”) and Financial Security Assurance Inc. ("FSA”)
announced today its U.S. public finance insured par and market share of
public finance new issuance for the third quarter 2009. Consistent with
their strong 2009 performance, Assured and FSA guaranteed a total of
approximately $8.7 billion in U.S. municipal new issue volume, which
represents 9.6% of total par issued for the third quarter 2009. Year-to
date, both companies combined have guaranteed approximately $29.6
billion in new issue, representing 10.3% of new public finance issuance.
"Our market activity for the first nine months of 2009 demonstrates the
demand for bond insurance,” said Bill Hogan, Senior Managing Director of
the Public Finance Group. "In the current challenging economic
environment, our guaranty has generated debt service savings for a broad
range of issuers, both large and small.”
Assured and FSA provided guaranties on a number of notable transactions
during third quarter 2009 including: $386 million in bonds for the
Indianapolis Local Public Improvement Waterworks Project; $347 million
in toll road revenue bonds for the Dulles Metrorail and $168 million in
airport system subordinate lien revenue bonds for Clark County, Nevada.
Assured was also active in the Build America Bonds program where they
guaranteed $103 million in sales tax bonds, of which $85 million were
Build America Bonds for Utah County, Utah and $63 million in revenue
bonds for Troy University in Alabama, of which a majority were Build
America Bonds.
Assured Guaranty Ltd. is a Bermuda-based holding company. Its operating
subsidiaries provide credit enhancement products to the U.S. and
international public finance, structured finance and mortgage markets.
Any forward-looking statements made in this press release reflect
Assured’s current views with respect to future events and financial
performance and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements
involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
materially from those set forth in these statements. For example,
Assured’s forward-looking statements, including its statements regarding
public finance new issue volume, could be affected by a rating agency
action, such as a ratings downgrade, difficulties with the execution of
Assured’s business strategy, contract cancellations, developments in the
world's financial and capital markets, more severe or frequent losses
affecting the adequacy of Assured’s loss reserve, impact of market
volatility of the mark-to-market of our contracts written in credit
default swap form, changes in regulation or tax laws, governmental
actions, natural catastrophes, Assured’s dependence on customers,
decreased demand or increased competition, loss of key personnel,
technological developments, the effects of mergers, acquisitions and
divestitures, changes in accounting policies or practices, changes in
general economic conditions, other risks and uncertainties that have not
been identified at this time, management's response to these factors,
and other risk factors identified in Assured’s filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place
undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as
of the dates on which they are made. Assured undertakes no obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise.
