Bermuda-based bond insurer Assured Guaranty added six staff to US public finance group in the first quarter to meet soaring demand.

Assured's share of new municipal-bond insurance jumped fourfold in the first quarter to more than 30 percent, the company reported this week. In the first three quarters of last year it was averaging around one percent.

The company has been boosted by the problems of its rivals, as Assured is the only major bond insurer whose AAA ratings from all three major credit ratings agencies have not been threatened with downgrade during the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross ploughed $250 million into Assured and has promised another $750 million, helping the company take full advantage of the competitive edge it has in the market.

Many financial guarantors have paid a heavy price for straying beyond their traditional business of insuring US municipal bonds. They have ventured into guaranteeing structured investment products, linked to risky mortgages, against bad debt and have been hit with losses after a wave of mortgage delinquencies.

Assured has suffered losses too, but by avoiding a heavy involvement in sub-prime business, it has managed to preserve its ratings. As a result, it has massively boosted its US municipal business.

The new staff include Mary Francoeur, who was hired as the managing director for a newly formed Infrastructure and Project Finance team.

Other new recruits include Joseph Chu, director of the Utilities team, who will cover regulated investor-owned utilities and public power issuers, and Michael Bartsch, director on the General Government team.

Assured said this week it expects to expand its US Public Finance group by at least an additional four professionals to reach a total of 23 or more by the middle of this year.

"Our expansion in the US public finance market has accelerated rapidly," said Michael Schozer, president of Assured Guaranty Corp.

"We achieved approximately 30 percent market share in the first quarter of 2008, a major achievement.

"Our significant expansion of this group is reflective of the great demand we see for our products and our commitment to our public finance clients."

Assured has focused on small municipal issuers for many years and recently created a Core Products team that focuses on traditional general obligation and municipal utility transactions for smaller issuers.

The new team, which reports to John Trahan, managing director of the General Government team, is led by Gordon Murray and consists of four professionals dedicated to this business. During first quarter of 2008, the Core Products team closed 118 deals with a transaction par size of $50 million or lower for total Core Products net par insured of approximately $1.7 billion, the company stated.

Assured's Higher Education and Healthcare team also expects to add two additional hires in the second half of 2008.