Primus Guaranty, Ltd. (the "Company” or "Primus Guaranty”) (NYSE:PRS)
today announced that its subsidiary, Primus Financial Products, LLC
("Primus Financial”), purchased $21.9 million principal amount of its
$75 million subordinated notes due 2034 in a privately negotiated
transaction following an inquiry to Primus Financial made by the holder
of the notes.
Primus Financial purchased the notes for $7.0 million in cash. The
transaction is expected to result in a realized gain of approximately
$14.6 million for Primus Guaranty in the second quarter of 2009. At
current market interest rates, the transaction also is expected to
result in annual interest expense savings of approximately $700,000 for
Primus Guaranty.
Primus Financial’s repurchase of its subordinated debt was approved by
its board of directors. The repurchase is part of the Company’s
previously announced strategy to amortize Primus Financial’s credit swap
portfolio. This transaction is separate from Primus Guaranty’s debt and
equity repurchase program.
About Primus Guaranty
Primus Guaranty, Ltd. is a Bermuda company, with its principal operating
subsidiaries, Primus Financial Products, LLC and Primus Asset
Management, Inc., headquartered in New York City. Primus Financial
Products provides protection against the risk of default on corporate,
sovereign and asset-backed security obligations through the sale of
credit swaps to dealers and banks. Primus Asset Management provides
credit portfolio management services to Primus Financial Products, and
manages private investment vehicles, including two collateralized loan
obligations and three synthetic collateralized swap obligations for
third parties.
Safe Harbor Statement
Some of the statements included in this press release and other
statements Primus Guaranty may make, particularly those anticipating
future financial performance, business prospects, growth and operating
strategies, market performance, valuations and similar matters, are
forward-looking statements that involve a number of assumptions, risks
and uncertainties, which change over time. For those statements, Primus
Guaranty claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking
statements contained in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. Any such statements speak only as of the date they are
made, and Primus Guaranty assumes no duty to, and does not undertake to,
update any forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ
materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements, and
future results could differ materially from historical performance. For
a discussion of the factors that could affect the company's actual
results please refer to the risk factors identified from time to time in
the company's SEC reports, including, but not limited to, Primus
Guaranty's Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission.