Press Release
| February 18, 2009
Dewey & LeBoeuf Assists MBIA in Groundbreaking Transaction
(New York, NY- February 18, 2009) - A group of Dewey & LeBoeuf attorneys represented MBIA, the world's largest monoline insurer, as the company executed a groundbreaking transformation to establish a new U.S. public finance bond insurance company through a restructuring of its principal insurance subsidiary, MBIA Insurance Corp.
To execute the transformation, the stock of MBIA Insurance Corp. of Illinois, a public finance guarantee insurance company, was transferred by MBIA Corp. to a newly established intermediate holding company (which itself is part of MBIA). Over $537 billion total net par of U.S. public finance business was ceded to the new insurer by "cut through" reinsurance with second-to-pay coverage, and over $5 billion in assets were transferred to capitalize the new insurer. The transaction will provide critical liquidity to the U.S. municipal bond market by establishing a significant and highly rated bond insurer dedicated solely to the U.S. public finance market. The existing structured finance business will remain at MBIA Corp.
The representation took over a year to structure and obtain regulatory approvals. It was led by Larry Larose as restructuring counsel to MBIA with the assistance of Jane Boisseau, Allison Tam, Jim Woods and Mark Goodman on regulatory matters, Elizabeth Bannigan on reinsurance matters, Chris DiAngelo and Eileen Bannon on corporate matters and George Abramowitz, Dennis Allen and Christopher Schoen on tax matters. Associates Koby Feingold, Dana Loguidice, Yoo-Kyeong Kwon, Nicole Bright, Emily Stewart, Sam Kohn, Sarah Trum and Erin Reichenbach also assisted on the matter
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