Assured Guaranty : Releases Statement Regarding Hartford, Connecticut

HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) (together with its subsidiaries, Assured Guaranty or the Company) released the following statement regarding the debt situation of Hartford, Connecticut:

Assured Guaranty has met with city leadership of Hartford, members of the Governor's staff, and other state and local representatives about Hartford's current fiscal challenges. We expressed our willingness to work constructively with the city and other stakeholders to develop a consensual resolution that would provide debt service relief for the city while it also moves forward with other structural reforms, including its relationship, as the state capital, with the state. We have discussed ways to help ease some of the city's financial issues, including a general obligation bond (GO bond) refinancing solution that takes advantage of new state legislation and that reduces and levels the city's annual GO bond debt service over the next 15 years. Execution of this GO bond refinancing solution would not require a chapter 9 bankruptcy filing by the city.

Assured Guaranty's insurance of Hartford's GO bonds demonstrates our long-standing support of Hartford. It is in all stakeholders' best interest to resolve the city's fiscal distress and improve the quality of life of its residents. We believe a consensual agreement among stakeholders offers the city a better path forward than bankruptcy, which would have long-term negative implications for the State of Connecticut, Hartford and other Connecticut municipalities. These potentially include years of expensive and time-consuming litigation, loss of investor and business community confidence, diminished or no access to capital markets and an increased cost of borrowing for essential infrastructure and development. We believe passage of an appropriate state budget is an important step in moving forward towards constructive resolution of the current situation. We are committed to working constructively with the city and the state and believe we can help return Hartford to a sustainable financial footing.

The information set out above contains forward-looking statements that 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 future actions by Hartford or Connecticut or the reactions of stakeholders or capital market participants to such actions or any related litigation; Assured Guaranty's inability to execute its strategies, including its loss mitigation and risk remediation strategies, and negative developments that may impact Assured Guaranty's liquidity and capital, and therefore its ability to make claim payments on time and in full, including less demand for Assured Guaranty's financial guaranty product, or adverse developments with respect to its insured or investment 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 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 September 25, 2017. 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.

Assured Guaranty Ltd. is a publicly traded Bermuda-based holding company. Its operating subsidiaries provide credit enhancement products to the U.S. and international public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. More information on Assured Guaranty Ltd. and its subsidiaries can be found at AssuredGuaranty.com.