Primus Guaranty, Ltd. (NYSE:PRS) today announced that its subsidiary,
Primus Financial Products, LLC (“Primus Financial”), had entered into a
transaction with a significant bank counterparty in respect of credit
default swaps between Primus Financial and the counterparty with a total
notional principal of $1.2 billion.
Under the terms of the transaction, Primus Financial and the bank have
terminated credit default swaps with an aggregate notional principal of
$40 million. These credit default swaps were written primarily on a
financial guaranty insurance (“monoline”) reference entity. Primus
Financial has paid a termination fee of $15 million to the counterparty
to terminate these swaps.
In addition, Primus Financial has assigned the remaining credit default
swaps that it had sold to the counterparty to a newly formed, wholly
owned subsidiary of Primus Financial. Primus Financial has paid an
assignment fee of approximately $36 million to its subsidiary. The
subsidiary’s exposure to the credit default swap contracts with the
counterparty is limited to this $36 million plus future premiums.
“A key business priority for Primus in 2009 is actively managing our
credit protection portfolio to improve its performance in amortization,”
said Thomas W. Jasper, Primus Guaranty, Ltd.’s chief executive officer.
“The transaction we are announcing today is an important step in that
direction.”
About Primus Guaranty
Primus Guaranty, Ltd. is a Bermuda company with operations in New York,
Boston and London. Through its subsidiaries, Primus Guaranty has over
$25 billion in assets under management in structured credit vehicles.
Those vehicles are invested across a range of asset classes – including
investment grade, high yield and leveraged loans – using both cash and
synthetic instruments.
Safe Harbor Statement
Some of the statements included in this press release and other
statements Primus Guaranty may make, particularly those anticipating
future financial performance, business prospects, growth and operating
strategies, market performance, valuations and similar matters, are
forward-looking statements that involve a number of assumptions, risks
and uncertainties, which change over time. For those statements, Primus
Guaranty claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking
statements contained in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. Any such statements speak only as of the date they are
made, and Primus Guaranty assumes no duty to, and does not undertake to,
update any forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ
materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements, and
future results could differ materially from historical performance. For
a discussion of the factors that could affect the company's actual
results please refer to the risk factors identified from time to time in
the company's SEC reports, including, but not limited to, Primus
Guaranty's Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission.
Media:
Kennedy & Company
Steven Kennedy,
914-961-2436 ext. 13
steven@kennedycom.com
or
Investor
Relations:
Primus Guaranty, Ltd.
Nicole Stansell,
212-697-1992
investorrelations@primusguaranty.com