Assured Guaranty announces surge in Q2 2019 results

Assured Guaranty has announced that it made a profit of $142 million in the second quarter of 2019, an increase on the $75 million it made in the same period of 2018.

However, the company also reported a severe fall in its gross written premiums, which went from $393 million in the second quarter of 2018 to just $51 million in the second quarter of 2019.

Assured Guaranty explained this fall by saying that GWP and present value of new business production (PVP) for the second quarter 2018 included the assumption of substantially all of the insured portfolio of SGI which was the primary driver of the variance in GWP, PVP and gross par written between second quarter 2019 and second quarter 2018.

“Assured Guaranty performed well in the second quarter, once again achieving record highs per share in shareholders’ equity, non-GAAP operating shareholders’ equity and adjusted book value. We saw solid new business production in an extremely challenging interest rate and credit spread environment. And we achieved a milestone by bringing the below-investment-grade portion of our insured portfolio down to 3.8 percent, the first time we have reported a BIG percentage that low in almost 10 years,” said Dominic Frederico, president and CEO of Assured Guaranty.

“We are excited about our agreement to acquire BlueMountain, a seasoned and scaled asset management firm with a compatible credit culture, valuable business synergies and the ability to diversify our revenue sources while making a meaningful contribution to Assured Guaranty’s profitability. We are looking forward to Andrew Feldstein, the current CEO of BlueMountain, coming on board as our chief investment officer and head of asset management.”