NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Ram Holdings Ltd., the bond insurer that first sold shares to the public last year, reported a $14.7 million third-quarter net loss after a decline in the value of collateralised debt obligations it guaranteed.

The loss amounted to 54 cents a share and compares with net income of $12.2 million, or 45 cents, a year earlier, Bermuda-based Ram said in a statement yesterday.

Profit from operations, which excludes the mark-to-market CDO losses, was $13.7 million, or 50 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting profit on that basis of 45 cents a share.

The loss "is directly related to the market dislocation in the structured finance markets that has led to significantly wider credit spreads and large unrealized losses of $28.4 million on our portfolio of highly rated credit derivative contracts," Ram chief executive officer Vernon Endo said in the statement.

Ram, Ambac Financial Group Inc., MBIA Inc. and other bond insurers are being hurt by worsening defaults on mortgages, home equity loans, credit card balances and other assets that back the debt securities the companies have guaranteed. Morgan Stanley analysts in a report on Friday questioned whether bond insurers will be able to survive the mounting losses.

Ram closed up 63 cents, to $5.67, in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock has plunged 61 percent since the company's initial public offering in April 2006.

The company announced on October 30 that it expected to post mark-to-market losses related to widening of credit spreads.

Ram Holdings provides reinsurance for companies including MBIA, Financial Security Assurance Inc., Financial Guaranty Insurance Co., and Ambac.

CDOs repackage assets such as corporate loans and mortgage bonds into new debt with varying degrees of risk. Most of the new securities receive higher ratings than the underlying debt.