S&P, KBRA and Moody’s Announce Assured Guaranty’s Financial Strength Is Unchanged Following Merger of Principal Subsidiaries; Assured Guaranty Municipal Bonds Now Carry Assured Guaranty Inc.’s Ratings
2024年8月5日 - 11:20PM
ビジネスワイヤ(英語)
Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE: AGO) (AGL, together with its
subsidiaries, Assured Guaranty) announced today that S&P Global
Ratings (S&P), Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) and Moody’s
Ratings (Moody’s) have indicated that they see no change to Assured
Guaranty’s financial strength as a result of the August 1, 2024
merger of Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. (AGM) into Assured
Guaranty Inc. (AG).
S&P
S&P, which assigns a AA (stable) financial strength rating
to AG, released a report on August 1, 2024, stating “there are no
changes to the ratings of any of the S&P Global rated entities
in the AGL group hierarchy.” Additionally, they wrote: “We expect
no change in the company's business strategy or approach to risk
management. When evaluating capital adequacy for the companies, we
run a consolidated capital adequacy model and already considered
the business being assumed by AG in our analysis.”
This followed a July 9, 2024 S&P bulletin stating that the
merger “won't change its assessment of the Assured Guaranty group's
business risk or financial risk positions.”
KBRA
KBRA issued a press release on August 1, 2024 about Assured
Guaranty’s insurance financial strength ratings (IFSRs) after the
merger was completed, in which it wrote: “The IFSRs of AG
(AA+/Stable), AGUK (AA+/Stable), AGE (AA+/Stable), as well as the
Issuer Rating (A+/Stable) and all outstanding Debt Ratings for
Assured Guaranty US Holdings Inc., remain unchanged.”
KBRA had previously written, on July 8, 2024, that “there will
be no rating changes to any KBRA-rated insured obligations
currently insured by AGM, AGUK or AGE as a result of the merger,”
adding that it “views the merger and the resultant simplification
of the overall organizational structure as creating capital,
operational, and regulatory efficiencies, as well as enhancing
Assured Guaranty Ltd.'s overall global platform and scale as
management continues to position its business to optimize its
market position and future growth opportunities.”
Moody’s
A Moody’s press release issued on August 2, 2024, noted that “by
operation of law, all securities that had been insured by Assured
Guaranty Municipal Corp. are now guaranteed obligations of Assured
Guaranty Inc.” and that the insurance financial strength (IFS)
rating of AG is A1 (stable).
Previously, on July 10, 2024 in response to the announcement of
the planned merger, Moody’s issued a press release affirming the A1
(stable) IFS ratings of AG, AGM and Assured Guaranty UK Limited, as
well as the Baa1 (stable) senior debt ratings of Assured Guaranty
US Holdings Inc., the Baa2(hyb) (stable) junior subordinated debt
rating of Assured Guaranty Municipal Holdings Inc. and the Baa1
(stable) long-term issuer rating of AGL.
Moody’s wrote that its affirmation reflects the Assured Guaranty
group’s “strong capital profile, conservative underwriting of US
municipal, international infrastructure and structured finance
risks and leading market position in the financial guaranty
insurance sector.” They added that “Assured Guaranty’s ability to
organically generate significant capital through premium and
investment earnings make the credit profile of its operating
subsidiaries resilient to a broad range of stress scenarios.”
Moody’s stated that it believes the merger “results in a moderate
strengthening of the combined entity’s credit profile relative to
the current overall credit profiles of AGM and AG.”
Additionally, in Moody’s view, “The larger insured portfolio and
claims paying resources of post-merger AG enhances risk
diversification and reduces the size of large single risk exposures
relative to capital. Despite the planned extraction of $300 million
of capital through a special dividend following the merger, AG’s
pro forma risk-adjusted capital adequacy will be stronger than
AGM’s current capital adequacy.”
Procedural Rating Agency Merger Action
As AG is the surviving company of the merger, all three rating
agencies withdrew their ratings of AGM, and bonds that had been
insured by AGM now carry AG’s ratings.
Any forward-looking statements made in this press release,
including those regarding growth opportunities for Assured
Guaranty, demand for its product, and sustained economic conditions
for increased new business, reflect Assured Guaranty’s current
views with respect to future events 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. These risks and uncertainties include, but are
not limited to, difficulties executing Assured Guaranty’s business
strategy; those risks and uncertainties resulting from changes in
rating agency models or opinions; Assured Guaranty’s continued
capital adequacy; adverse credit developments in Assured Guaranty’s
insured portfolio and the impact of those developments on rating
agency models and opinions; 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 Guaranty’s
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which are made as of August 5, 2024. Assured Guaranty
undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
About Assured Guaranty
Ltd.
Assured Guaranty Ltd. is a publicly traded (NYSE: AGO),
Bermuda-based holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Assured
Guaranty provides credit enhancement products to the U.S. and
non-U.S. public finance, infrastructure and structured finance
markets. Assured Guaranty also participates in the asset management
business through its ownership interest in Sound Point Capital
Management, LP and certain of its investment management affiliates.
More information on Assured Guaranty can be found at:
AssuredGuaranty.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240805817905/en/
Investor Relations: Robert Tucker, 212-339-0861 Senior Managing
Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
rtucker@agltd.com
Media: Ashweeta Durani, 212-408-6042 Director, Corporate
Communications adurani@agltd.com
Assured Guaranty Municipal (NYSE:AGO)
過去 株価チャート
から 8 2024 まで 9 2024
Assured Guaranty Municipal (NYSE:AGO)
過去 株価チャート
から 9 2023 まで 9 2024