Assured Guaranty shrs up after co denies funds from Wilbur Ross
June 19 (Reuters) - Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd (AGO.N) rose about 2 percent on heavy volumes before the bell Friday, a day after the bond insurer priced its stock offering and said it would not need funds from WL Ross & Co LLC for a pending acquisition.
Activist investor Wilbur Ross, who made a fortune snapping up distressed companies and has a stake in Assured Guaranty, had earlier said his firm would provide $361 million to fund the cash portion of Assured's acquisition of Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd (FSA).
Belgian-French financial group Dexia (DEXI.BR) (DEXI.PA) said in November it would sell its troubled U.S. bond insurance subsidiary FSA to U.S. peer Assured Guaranty for $361 million in cash and 44.6 million new Assured shares, making for a total consideration of $722 million at that time.
Assured Guaranty expects to raise about $573.5 million through an offering of stock and notes, of which $364 million would be used to pay the cash portion of the FSA deal.
On late Thursday, Assured Guaranty said its offering of 38.5 million shares had been priced at $11 apiece, bringing estimated net proceeds to $423.5 million, up from its prior expectation of $400 million. Shares of the Bermuda-based provider of credit-enhancement products were trading up 21 cents at $11.30, with 2.9 million shares exchanging hands -- significantly more than the 50-day moving average volume of 1.2 million shares, before the bell. (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
