Assured Guaranty acquires interest in Wasmer, Schroeder & Company

Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., a subsidiary of Assured Guaranty Ltd., and Wasmer, Schroeder & Company announced the closing of AGM's acquisition of a minority interest in WSC on Wednesday.

The transaction closed on September 1, 2017. WSC is an independent investment advisory firm specializing in Separately Managed Account management.

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"We are pleased to close this initial transaction in the asset management business,” said Dominic Frederico, president and CEO of Assured. “We will continue to look for strategic alternative investment opportunities that benefit from our core competencies and credit experience and have risk profiles in line with ours. We expect to support the continued growth of WSC as it seeks acquisitions in the fixed income SMA investment management sector.”

WSC was founded in 1987 and has grown from a small boutique firm with one office in Naples, Fla., to a multi-office, national organization with approximately $8 billion under management and clients in all 50 states. WSC serves high net worth individuals, wealth management groups and institutional investors.

“This transaction expands the depth of WSC’s credit capabilities as well as WSC’s footprint in the institutional/insurance sector with a $100 million initial commitment to WSC for a managed account of Assured Guaranty,” said Martin Wasmer, CEO of WSC.

AGM’s investment in WSC’s growing and profitable business capitalizes on core competencies of both companies, such as municipal credit analysis and strong industry relationships, according to the press release.

“AGM is excited to partner with WSC and sees this as a strategic fit with our public finance business, raising the profile of both companies in the retail investor market," said Bill Hogan, senior managing director, public finance at AGM.

This is the latest of a string of acquisitions that the largest municipal bond insurer has been gobbling up. Most recently, the financial guarantor completed the acquisition of MBIA UK Insurance Ltd.

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