Assured Guaranty Ltd. ("Assured”) (NYSE:AGO), the holding company for
Assured Guaranty Corp. and Financial Security Assurance Inc. ("FSA”),
announced today that Assured Guaranty Corp. guaranteed 864 U.S. public
finance new issue transactions, totaling $17.8 billion in par insured,
during the first half of 2009. Par insured for the comparable period of
2008 was $17.8 billion. Assured Guaranty Corp. insured 9.1% of total
U.S. public finance new issue volume in the first half of 2009, compared
with 7.8% of par issued in last year’s first half.
"We insured roughly the same number of transactions in the first and
second quarters of this year, indicating consistent demand for our
guaranty,” noted Bill Hogan, Senior Managing Director of the Public
Finance Group. "We believe the market’s continued confidence reflects
recognition of our strong balance sheet and our ability to help both
large and small issuers achieve cost-effective market access.
Furthermore, we expect to expand this franchise significantly with the
addition of our recently acquired FSA platform.” (Assured acquired
Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. on July 1, 2009.) [FSA new
originations will be included in subsequent reports.]
Some notable transactions that Assured provided guaranties on during the
first half of 2009 include: $108 million in general obligation bonds for
Nassau County in New York; $260 million in payment-in-lieu-of-tax bonds
for the New York Yankee Stadium Project; $339 million in revenue and
revenue refunding bonds for the Commonwealth of Kentucky State Property
and Buildings Commission; $308 million in subordinate revenue bonds for
the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and $295 million in revenue bonds
for Virtua Health in New Jersey.
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
financial strength, 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 associated
with products affecting the adequacy of Assured’s loss reserve, impact
of market volatility on the marking to market on 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.
