Assured Guaranty’s New French Subsidiary to Seek Ratings Only from S&P and KBRA

November 18, 2019

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (together with its subsidiaries, Assured Guaranty) recently formed Assured Guaranty (Europe) S.A. (AGE SA) in France. AGE SA is a subsidiary of Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. and an affiliate of Assured Guaranty (Europe) plc (AGE plc).* Assured Guaranty intends to request permission to transfer certain of the financial guarantees of AGE plc to AGE SA in preparation for the potential withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. 

Assured Guaranty has determined to request ratings for AGE SA only from S&P Global Ratings (S&P) and from Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA). Assured Guaranty periodically assesses the value of obtaining or continuing ratings that the rating agencies assign to each of its companies. While S&P and KBRA have yet to rate AGE SA, Assured Guaranty believes that the AA rating (stable outlook) that S&P assigns to its financial guaranty operating subsidiaries currently, as well as the AA+ rating (stable outlook) that KBRA assigns to most of its financial guaranty operating subsidiaries currently, reflect those companies’ credit strength.

A rating agency that assigns a financial strength rating to a financial guarantor will generally, upon request, also assign an insured rating to those obligations the financial guarantor guarantees (“guaranteed obligations”). If S&P and KBRA award financial strength ratings to AGE SA, Assured Guaranty expects that each of them will continue to provide insured ratings on those guaranteed obligations for which they provided insured ratings before the guarantee was transferred from AGE plc to AGE SA, without any action on the part of the obligor on those guaranteed obligations. However, Assured Guaranty expects that a rating agency that assigns a financial strength rating to AGE plc but not AGE SA will discontinue the insured rating on those guaranteed obligations benefitting from guarantees transferred from AGE plc to AGE SA.

Investors and other interested parties wishing to provide feedback to Assured Guaranty may contact:

Robert Tucker, Senior Managing Director, Investor Relations
rtucker@agltd.com, +1 212 339 0861

Nick Proud, Senior Managing Director, International and Structured Finance
nproud@agltd.com, +44 0 20 7562 1910

* Each of Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. and Assured Guaranty (Europe) plc is rated AA / AA+ / A2 by S&P / KBRA / Moody’s Investors Service, in each case, with a stable outlook.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Any forward-looking statements made in this press release 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, those resulting from Assured Guaranty’s inability to execute its strategies; the demand for Assured Guaranty’s financial guarantees; actions that the rating agencies may take with respect to Assured Guaranty’s financial strength ratings; adverse developments in Assured Guaranty’s guaranteed portfolio; and other risks and uncertainties that have not been identified at this time, management’s response to these factors, and other risk factors identified in AGL’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are made as of November 18, 2019. 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.