Aspen Insurance Holdings Announces $200 Million Accelerated Share Repurchase
06 January 2010 - 9:53AM
Business Wire
Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited ("Aspen" or "The Company")
(NYSE:AHL) today announced that it has entered into an accelerated
share repurchase program with Goldman, Sachs & Co. to buy back
$200 million of Aspen's ordinary shares. A substantial majority of
the ordinary shares will be received and cancelled within the
current quarter. The Company may be entitled to receive additional
ordinary shares from Goldman Sachs based generally on the average
of the daily market prices of the Company’s ordinary shares during
the term of the agreement. The program is expected to be completed
within approximately ten months.
Based on Aspen's closing share price on January 4, 2010, the
$200 million share repurchase represents approximately 9.3 percent
of the Company's total market capitalization.
The repurchase will be made under the terms of Aspen's share
repurchase program authorized by the Board of Directors and
announced on February 6, 2008 and will complete the full amount of
that program. The purchase will be funded with cash on hand and the
sale of investment assets. The ordinary shares will be retired once
purchased.
Richard Houghton, Chief Financial Officer of Aspen, said: "The
accelerated share repurchase program we have announced today
reflects our continued commitment to active capital management
including the return of capital to our shareholders where we
believe it is in shareholders’ best interests for us to do so. We
will continue to manage our capital throughout the year and
evaluate options available to us to generate attractive risk
adjusted returns for shareholders."
About Aspen
Aspen provides reinsurance and insurance coverage to clients in
various domestic and global markets through wholly-owned
subsidiaries and offices in Bermuda, France, Ireland, Singapore,
the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. For the
nine months ended September 30, 2009, Aspen reported gross written
premiums of $1,661.4 million, net income of $347.6 million and
total assets of $8.2 billion. Its operating subsidiaries have been
assigned a rating of "A" ("Strong") by Standard & Poor's, an
"A" ("Excellent") by A.M. Best and an "A2" ("Good") by Moody's
Investors Service. For more information about Aspen, please visit
www.aspen.bm.
Application of the Safe Harbor of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
This press release contains written, and Aspen's officers may
make related oral, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning
of the U.S. federal securities laws regarding its capital
management plans, its outlook and financial results. These
statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements include all statements that do not relate solely to
historical or current facts, and can be identified by the use of
words such as "expect," "intend," "plan," "believe," "project,"
"anticipate," "seek," "will," "estimate," "may," "continue," and
similar expressions of a future or forward-looking nature.
All forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions,
estimates and data concerning future results and events and are
subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of
which are outside Aspen's control that could cause actual results
to differ materially from such statements, including changes in
market conditions and their impact on our business. For a detailed
description of uncertainties and other factors that could impact
the forward-looking statements in this release, please see the
"Risk Factors" section in Aspen's Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2008, filed with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission on February 26, 2009.
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