Assured Guaranty (AGO) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: PVP-Guidance übersteigt 400 Millionen US-Dollar

Wichtigste Erkenntnisse

• Assured Guaranty wies für das dritte Quartal 2026 ein bereinigtes operatives Ergebnis von 86 Millionen US-Dollar bzw. 1,94 US-Dollar je Aktie aus, verglichen mit 124 Millionen US-Dollar bzw. 2,57 US-Dollar je Aktie im dritten Quartal 2025.
• Der Neunmonats-PVP stieg im Vorjahresvergleich um 44 % auf 280 Millionen US-Dollar, getragen von Zuwächsen in den Segmenten U.S. Public Finance, Non-U.S. Public Finance und Global Structured Finance.
• Das Management erwartet für das Gesamtjahr 2026 einen Financial-Guarantee-PVP von über 400 Millionen US-Dollar. Mehrere größere Transaktionen könnten das Gesamtergebnis je nach Zeitpunkt und Umsetzung weiter anheben.
• Die verdienten Nettoprämien und Erträge aus Kreditderivaten stiegen von 98 Millionen US-Dollar auf 114 Millionen US-Dollar, gestützt durch höhere Refinanzierungen, planmäßige Prämien aus der Kommunalfinanzierung und kurzfristigere Fondsfinanzierungsgeschäfte.
• Das bereinigte operative Eigenkapital je Aktie erreichte einen Rekordwert von 131,99 US-Dollar, während der bereinigte Buchwert je Aktie mit 192,60 US-Dollar ebenfalls einen historischen Höchststand verzeichnete.
• Die Restrukturierungsvereinbarung von Brightline sieht nach dem Ausstieg aus dem Insolvenzverfahren neues OpCo-Kapital in Höhe von 490 Millionen US-Dollar vor, darunter 350 Millionen US-Dollar an nachrangigen Verbindlichkeiten und 140 Millionen US-Dollar an vorrangigen Verbindlichkeiten. Assured Guaranty hat sich verpflichtet, 70 Millionen US-Dollar der vorrangigen Verbindlichkeiten bereitzustellen.

Wichtigste Finanzdaten

Im Laufe des Quartals kaufte Assured Guaranty 123.000 Aktien für 10 Millionen US-Dollar zu einem Durchschnittspreis von 83,78 US-Dollar zurück und zahlte 17 Millionen US-Dollar an Dividenden aus.

Geschäfts- und operative Entwicklung

Der Bereich U.S. Public Finance erzielte in den ersten neun Monaten einen PVP von 199 Millionen US-Dollar, ein Plus von 31 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr. Assured Guaranty versicherte am Primär- und Sekundärmarkt ein Gesamtnennwertvolumen von 15,6 Milliarden US-Dollar, darunter 1,5 Milliarden US-Dollar an steuerpflichtigen Military-Housing-Revenue-Anleihen für Hampton Roads und 285 Millionen US-Dollar an Hafen-Revenue-Anleihen für die Gemeinde Anchorage (Alaska).

Das Unternehmen garantierte in diesem Zeitraum 23 Transaktionen mit einem Versicherungsvolumen von jeweils mindestens 100 Millionen US-Dollar. Zudem versicherte es ein Nennwertvolumen von rund 5,1 Milliarden US-Dollar bei Krediten mit einem Rating von AA oder höher von S&P und Moody’s.

Der PVP im Bereich Global Structured Finance kletterte um 117 % von 23 Millionen auf 50 Millionen US-Dollar, zu gleichen Teilen aufgeteilt auf das US- und das Nicht-US-Geschäft. Angeführt wurde das Neugeschäft von Fondsfinanzierungen, Garantien für das Kapitalmanagement von Lebensversicherungen und einer Garantie für eine gewerbliche Immobilien-Balloon-Note.

Das Management betonte, dass Fondsfinanzierungstransaktionen in der Regel Laufzeiten von einigen Monaten bis etwas mehr als zwei Jahren aufweisen. Dies beschleunigt die Prämienvereinnahmung und ermöglicht eine schnellere Wiederverwendung des Kapitals als im länger laufenden Kommunalgeschäft.

Der PVP im Bereich Non-U.S. Public Finance legte um 53 % von 19 Millionen auf 31 Millionen US-Dollar zu. Zu den Transaktionen zählten eine Garantie über 200 Millionen Euro im Zusammenhang mit der Refinanzierung der französischen Mautautobahn A28, zwei regulierte Energietransaktionen in Spanien und eine Transaktion für sozialen Wohnungsbau in Frankreich.

In Bezug auf Brightline erklärte das Management, dass eine verbesserte Liquidität und ein anhaltendes Umsatzwachstum zu einer positiven ökonomischen Schadenentwicklung beigetragen hätten. Das Engagement wurde intern von BIG 2 auf BIG 1 heraufgestuft. Weitere Verbesserungen hängen davon ab, dass Brightline das Insolvenzverfahren verlässt, das neue Kapital sichert und nachweist, dass es in der Lage ist, die Betriebskosten und den reduzierten Schuldendienst zu decken.

Ausblick des Managements

Das Management rechnet für das Gesamtjahr 2026 mit einem Financial-Guarantee-PVP von mehr als 400 Millionen US-Dollar. Das Unternehmen gab an, mit einer starken Pipeline in das vierte Quartal gestartet zu sein, wies jedoch darauf hin, dass Zeitpunkt und Abschluss mehrerer Großtransaktionen das Gesamtergebnis beeinflussen könnten.

Für 2027 zeigte sich das Management optimistisch hinsichtlich der Neugeschäftschancen, nannte jedoch kein konkretes Zahlenziel. Zu den Wachstumsprioritäten gehören der Ausbau von Gegenparteibeziehungen in Europa und im asiatisch-pazifischen Raum, der Aufbau eines wiederkehrenden Fondsfinanzierungsgeschäfts sowie die Umsetzung großer US-Infrastrukturtransaktionen.

Zudem plant das Unternehmen, im vierten Quartal über Möglichkeiten im Bereich des synthetischen Kapitals, einschließlich Rückversicherungen, zu informieren. Nach Angaben des Managements könnten diese Initiativen die Kapitaleffizienz verbessern und die Flexibilität zwischen der Finanzierung von Geschäftswachstum und Kapitalrückflüssen an die Aktionäre erhöhen.

Risiken und wichtige Beobachtungspunkte

• Die Kreditspreads bleiben trotz steigender Zinsen enger als vom Management gewünscht.
• Das PVP-Ergebnis für das Gesamtjahr hängt teilweise von Zeitpunkt und Umsetzung größerer Transaktionen ab.
• Die Erholung von Brightline bleibt an den Ausstieg aus dem Insolvenzverfahren, den Vollzug der Finanzierung und die operative Entwicklung gekoppelt.
• Der Zeitplan bezüglich Puerto Rico bleibt ungewiss. Das Management deutete an, dass Gerichtsverfahren und die Behandlung der Massekostenforderungen (Administrative Expense Claim) weiterhin wichtige Faktoren darstellen, wobei eine Einigung im Jahr 2027 möglich ist.
• Kapitalrückführungen werden durch das Bestreben des Unternehmens begrenzt, einen Puffer für die Ratings aufrechtzuerhalten und Kapital für Wachstumschancen vorzuhalten, darunter für Assured Life Re.
• Die Erträge aus alternativen Anlagen können periodenübergreifend schwanken; die Gewinne im dritten Quartal gingen von 32 Millionen US-Dollar im Vorjahr auf 21 Millionen US-Dollar zurück.

Höhepunkte der Analysten-Fragerunde

Das Management betonte, dass Anleiheversicherungen im Kommunalmarkt weiterhin Mehrwert bieten, auch wenn sich die Kreditspreads nicht wesentlich ausgeweitet haben. Chancen böten sich nach wie vor in den Bereichen Infrastruktur, laufendes Standardgeschäft (Flow Business) und Sekundärmarkttransaktionen.

Hinsichtlich der Prämienvereinnahmung führte das Management aus, dass noch nicht verdiente Prämienerträge mit über 3,8 Milliarden US-Dollar an abgegrenzten Prämienerlösen weiterhin wichtig seien. Strukturierte Finanzierungstransaktionen mit kürzerer Laufzeit ließen die verdienten Prämien jedoch schneller steigen, selbst wenn die abgegrenzten Prämienerlöse relativ stabil blieben. Nach Schätzungen des Managements machten Geschäfte mit kürzerer Laufzeit seit Jahresbeginn rund 27 % aus – verglichen mit rund 5 % zwei Jahre zuvor – und dieser Anteil dürfte weiter steigen.

Was die Kapitalallokation betrifft, räumte das Management das wertsteigernde Potenzial von Aktienrückkäufen ein, betonte jedoch, dass das derzeitige harte Kapital die Ratings stütze sowie Neugeschäftsreserven und Wachstumsinitiativen absichere. Das Unternehmen prüfe Wege, einen Teil dieses Puffers durch weichere Kapitalformen zu ersetzen, was zusätzliche Flexibilität für künftige Rückkäufe, Dividenden oder Investitionen in das operative Geschäft schaffen könnte.

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Assured Guaranty Limited Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Kelsey, and I will be the operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Robert Tucker, Senior Managing Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Robert Tucker

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining Assured Guaranty for our Third Quarter 2026 financial results conference call. Today's presentation is made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The presentation and today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements about our new business and credit outlooks, including, but not limited to, estimates, expectations or ranges regarding future PVP, our other new business production, market conditions, credit spreads, financial ratings, loss reserves, financial results or other items that may affect our future results.

These statements are subject to change due to new information or future events, and the actual results may differ from those expressed or implied in these statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are out of our control. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on them as we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise them, including any estimates, expectations or ranges regarding future PVP, our other new business production, except as required by law.

These forward-looking statements apply as of today, and you should not rely on them as representing our views in the future. We undertake no obligation to update these statements after this call. Please refer to our recent SEC filings for a discussion of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements and the Investor Information section of our website for our most recent presentations.

This presentation and today's discussion also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures. We present the GAAP financial measures most directly comparable to the non-GAAP financial measures referenced in this presentation, along with a reconciliation between such GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures in our financial supplement and equity investor presentation, which are on our website at assuredguaranty.com.

Turning to the presentation. Our speakers today are Dominic Frederico, President and Chief Executive Officer of Assured Guaranty Limited; Rob Basin, our Chief Operating Officer; and Ben Rosenbloom, our Chief Financial Officer; after their remarks, we will open the call to your questions. As the webcast is not enabled for Q&A, please dial into the call if you'd like to ask a question. I will now turn the call over to Dominic.

Dominic Frederico

Thank you, Robert, and welcome to everyone on today's call. Through the first 9 months of 2026, our key valuation metrics, adjusted operating shareholders' equity and adjusted book value per share once again reached record highs. The business production was strong, generating $280 million of PVP in the first 9 months. EVP increased in all 3 of our financial guarantee business lines and Global Structured Finance PVP more than doubled year-over-year. These results reflect the success of our growth strategy across the financial guarantee business.

Rob will discuss our production in more detail in a moment. During the third quarter, we also negotiated a restructuring agreement for Brightline and we are pleased with the outcome. As outlined in our press release, once Brightline Florida Holding and its affiliates exit bankruptcy, the agreement provides for a total of $490 million of new OpCo capital which includes $350 million of junior debt and $140 million of senior debt, of which Assured Guaranty has committed to provide $70 million.

Assured guarantees 51% of the senior revenue bonds and therefore, hold and will continue to hold after the issuance of the new debt, the controlling gooding position with respect to the bonds. We are also pleased that Assured Life Re is progressing on its new business opportunities. especially considering that these deals can have a somewhat long gestation period, and we look forward to having additional information for you in the near term. We remain focused on opportunities that align with Assured Guaranty's core competencies while offering attractive returns and capital efficient growth.

We see significant opportunities for future growth and greater revenue diversification, along with our new annuity reinsurance business, we remain focused on growing our core financial guarantee business in the U.S. and non-U.S. markets, including Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Within structured finance, fund finance is one of the areas where we continue to see strong growth in future opportunities. Looking forward, we will maintain disciplined underwriting and risk management to protect our policyholders and the counterparties whose capital we help optimize. We will continue to pursue our traditional business thoughtfully and strategically.

We will also focus on new business opportunities and ways to further optimize our capital structure. This strategy positions us to maximize the value of our guarantee for issuers and investors while also maximizing long-term shareholder value. I'll now turn the call over to Rob for more detail on the production results.

Robert Bailenson

Thank you, Dominic, and good morning, everyone. Assured Guaranty closed $280 million of PVP in the first 9 months of 2026. That is a 44% increase from $194 million in the first 9 months of 2025 and only $6 million less than our total PVP for all of 2025. PVP increased in all 3 of our financial guarantee business, 31% in U.S. public finance, 53% in non-U.S. public finance and 117% in Global Structured Finance.

As Dominic noted, these results reflect the strength of our new business strategy and our multipronged approach to applying our financial guarantee products globally. In U.S. public finance, we insured $15.6 billion of aggregate par across the primary and secondary markets in the first 9 months of 2026, generating $199 million of PVP. Highlights of the $15.6 billion of U.S. public finance power included: $1.5 billion of taxable military housing revenue bonds for Hampton Roads in the third quarter. Of that, $1 billion had an underlying AA rating and $322 million was A-rated. $636 million for the city of Houston, Texas hotel tax and $330 million in student housing revenue bonds for the Kentucky development corporation both earlier in the year.

$285 million of port revenue bonds for the municipality of Angore Alaska in the third quarter and $1 billion of secondary market par through September. We guaranteed 23 transactions using $100 million or more of our insurance in the first 9 months. The market continues to recognize the size of our capital base and the strength of our value proposition on these larger transactions. We also insured approximately $5.1 billion of par on credits rated AA or higher by S&P and Moody's. This shows that we can add meaningful value even to highly rated bonds.

Turning to Global Structured Finance. We are very pleased with PVP of $50 million, split evenly between U.S. and non-U.S. structured finance. That compares with $23 million in the first 9 months of 2025. These results came primarily from fund finance, along with financial guarantees for life insurance capital management and a commercial real estate balloon note guarantee. We continue to actively develop our fund finance business. As I've explained on the previous calls, these transactions are often repeatable flow business with relatively short lives from a few months to just over 2 years. As a result, we earned premiums considerably faster and can reuse the capital more quickly.

Ben will discuss the earnings impact of the shorter duration business in a few minutes. Additionally, we expect many of these transactions to renew at maturity. Non-U.S. public finance PVP was $31 million for the first 9 months of 2026 compared with $19 million for the same period in 2025. In the third quarter, results included a primary market European toll road transaction. Earlier in the year, they included 2 regulated energy transactions in Spain and a primary social housing transaction in France.

On the Toll Road deal, Assured Guaranty Europe guaranteed EUR 200 million as part of a larger financing to refinance the A28 toll road in France. We expect to finish the year with strong financial guarantee production. We are off to a good start in the fourth quarter, and we have a strong pipeline for the rest of 2026. We we expect to deliver more than $400 million of financial guarantee PVP for full year 2026. Several larger transactions could raise that total further depending on their timing and execution. Looking ahead to 2027, we are optimistic about our financial guarantee new business opportunities.

As part of our strategy to grow globally, including in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, we continue to expand how our products are used, grow our geographic footprint and add or expand counterparty relationships. At the same time, we continue to create material value for issuers and investors in the U.S. municipal and other markets. I will now turn the call over to Ben to discuss our financial results.

Benjamin Rosenblum

Thank you, Dominic and Rob, and good morning. I am pleased to report third quarter 2026 adjusted operating income of $86 million or $1.94 per share. This compares to adjusted operating income of $124 million or $2.57 per share in the third quarter of 2025. Last year's results included a significant benefit due to increased recovery assumptions on U.S. RMBS exposures, which was the primary driver of the $30 million benefit in loss expense. This compares to a $2 million loss expense in third quarter of this year.

Economic loss development, which unlike loss expense, ignores the impact of unearned premiums was a benefit of $27 million in the third quarter of 2026 and is net of a $16 million loss attributed to updating discount rates. The largest component of the positive economic loss development was bright line which achieved improved liquidity from the settlement we reached. Additionally, Byline has continued to experience revenue growth, which along with this improved liquidity position, should put the train system on the path to success.

Net earned premiums and credit derivative revenues increased from $98 million in the third quarter of last year to $114 million in the third quarter of this year. In addition to higher refundings scheduled net earned premiums also increased mainly due to the continued growth in shorter-duration strategies like Fund Finance as well as the higher scheduled public finance net earned premiums. Alternative investments generated $21 million in gains in the third quarter of this year compared to $32 million in the third quarter of 2025, reflecting lower gains across several asset classes.

We have an inception to date IRR of approximately 11.5% on the alternative investment portfolio, which is significantly higher than the 3-year average pretax yield in our fixed maturity portfolio of 4.5%. As always, we continuously evaluate a range of capital deployment opportunities and allocate capital to various strategies that may include supporting growth in our financial guaranty business, growing our nascent life and annuity platform helping to grow Sandpoint and capital management.

In addition, we are also pursuing synthetic capital opportunities, including reinsurance to further improve the efficiency and cost at which we can deploy capital. We will update you on that in the fourth quarter. In the third quarter of 2026, we repurchased 123,000 shares for $10 million at an average price of $83.78 per share and returned $17 million in dividends to our shareholders. Our holding company liquidity is currently approximately $144 million, of which $66 million is an AGL.

At the end of the third quarter of 2026, we had again reached record per share valuations of $131.99 per adjusted operating shareholders' equity and $192.60 per adjusted book values, reflecting the successful execution of our key strategic initiatives. I will now turn the call over to our operator to give you instructions for the Q&A period.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Marisa Lobo with UBS. -- is. Please go ahead.

Fragen und Antworten

Ameeta Lobo Nelson

Thank you -- good morning. Maybe just starting with the municipal market. How are you seeing the muni market evolve following recent volatility? Is the higher yield environment creating increased demand for bond insurance. Any color you can give us on that.

Robert Bailenson

Yes. We're seeing interest rates rise. We still haven't seen credit spreads widen as much as we would like, but we expect that to happen. But we're seeing a lot of opportunities and without that, as you can see from our results, in infrastructure transactions that we did for military housing, significant transactions that we see also in our flow business and also in our secondary markets. So even with this tight spread environment, our financial guarantee is providing a lot of value.

Ameeta Lobo Nelson

Okay. And just looking at Puerto Rico, seeing mediation was extended again through April 2027. To what extent does the postelection landscape change previous assumptions on your timing process and recovery under the proposed PREPA plan?

Dominic Frederico

I don't think it changes much be honest with you. I think the path that they've taken from the perspective of the White House in terms of changing the council is still on path to get done sometime in the early part of next year. Obviously, we're more interested in the court cases and judge went lifting to stay on the administrative expense claim as to what's our revenue or what's our claim on that collateral. The control committee is what it is and what we release, we think on some sort of a timely basis probably somewhere in 2027.

Ameeta Lobo Nelson

Okay. And if I could just ask on capital return. Could you talk about the dividend versus buyback trade-off here? Now dividends have exceeded buybacks. Is there appetite to continue raising the dividend? Or is the preference still to reserve capital for buybacks when the window opens?

Dominic Frederico

We're actually looking at a lot of different alternatives in the capital management market. And as we make progress across those options, we will continue to update you. We maintain a buffer significant to ensure we ensure our ratings are stable. And obviously, that buffer was once again confirmed relative to the affirmation of our ratings at the end of this year by all 3 rating agencies. We look forward though, we like to see that buffer come out of more soft capital than hard capital to give us more options relative to what we do with hard capital in terms of growth of the business, potential return of the capital, depending on what the market looks like at the time.

We believe we're putting on ROEs today on the new business front, which is in target range of our cost of capital in excess of our cost of capital and we've got some unique opportunities there that with the buffer have to be concerned about where our level of capital is today. And therefore, as we look to manage more options on the capital, we'll update you by the end of the year and the fourth quarter as we look to change the mix of capital to give us the capital flexibility that we're looking for.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Tommy McJoynt with KBW.

Thomas Mcjoynt-Griffith

The first one here, I appreciate you guys giving sort of an outlook or a guidance for the full year for PVP of $400 million. To the extent that you guys have a sort of line of sight into what next year looks like, do you feel like this year has been unusually strong? Do you feel like the pipeline is sufficient that 2027 could see even an increase in relative to this year, understanding some transactions can be lumpy in terms of whether they fall in 1 month of the next. But what's your line of sight like into next year is growth relative to this year?

Dominic Frederico

Tommy, I'll give you a couple of things. One, I'd be disappointed if we end the year at $400 million to read between the lines, anybody like the that. Number two, as we look to next year, we've made a lot of inroads relative to our new products, or new geographies. And we're continuing to get greater relationships and acceptance across a broader base of markets and products, so as we get counterparty relationships signed up, that opens up the opportunity for not only one product or one transaction or multiple transactions. And we're now seeing in the international markets, multiple transactions from the same countries. .

Number two, the type of business we're writing today is shorter term than our typical municipal business. So you're going to see a heavier contribution to earnings, a heavier contribution to a return. And therefore, we look at that as a flow business as we go into 2027, where we typically have sit back and wait for large transactions to materialize to have very good production years. We're looking for more flow, build a move box that will continue to increase over time. And once again, with statutory earnings, lower cap charges, higher earned premium we think have a very positive effect on the ROE of the company. As we look together, we get to our cost of capital over the next few years.

Robert Bailenson

Tom, I just want to add to Tommy's point and emphasize the fact that these new counterparty relationships that we're opening up in Europe and Australia are leading to multiple transactions within each counterparty. And as Dominic said, these transactions, especially in global structured finance are much shorter and the earnings impact is much quicker, the capital as we used much quicker as well. And also in U.S. pump finance, we're seeing large infrastructure opportunities building the pipeline into next year as well. So I'm very excited about how we end the year and also going into next year. .

Dominic Frederico

Yes. I think Tommy also is to remember that as you look at these counterparties, they're obviously very comfortable with the credit of insured guarantee as they not only do a transaction, they started expanding the transactions and the size and it's a real good confirmation of how we manage the company, how we maintain our ratings, the reputation we have in the marketplace.

Robert Bailenson

And to emphasize the fact these are large transactions, these counterparties are taking down, especially in structured finance.

Thomas Mcjoynt-Griffith

Okay. Got it. I appreciate all that. And actually, just to clarify, since some of the contracts are shorter duration. Historically, we had always looked at the UPR on the balance sheet as a sort of way to assess growth in the business. But with the shorter duration, does that mean that metric might not be the best want to look to when you think about your sort of future production numbers? .

Robert Bailenson

I'll say something and then Ben probably can jump in as well. I'll say that you have to look at both. I think UPR is a strong metric for what we look at is for future earnings, but you also just started especially in structured finance, looking at the earnings in that because that is actually increasing significantly as we continue to open up these new counterparties and multiple transactions in fund finance, core lending portfolios of banks, so that's going to become much more -- much -- a very important metric for you to look at as well.

Benjamin Rosenblum

I would echo what Rob said. I mean unearned premiums, obviously, our lifeblood. We have a little over $3.8 billion in deferred premium revenue, and that's great. But you'll see that while our deferred premium revenue stayed relatively stable over the last couple of quarters, our earned premium has continued to increase quarter-over-quarter. And that's really a reflection that Rob is right, that the structured finance deals are impacting our bottom line faster while -- even though the unearned premium isn't really going up the earned premium is.

Dominic Frederico

Yes, we look at scheduled earned premium is one of the barometers of growth and successful growth as long as that's increasing, it might not be adding to the UPR number on the balance sheet, which we still expect to rise as well because these contracts are being renewed and further extended and then new relationships with more contracts. So we think that's going to be a really good source of both term premium and our premium reserve.

Thomas Mcjoynt-Griffith

Okay. I appreciate that. And then going back to the capital discussion. Certainly, I think you guys well communicated the slowdown and the cadence of buybacks back in the early summer as you sort of seek out these growth opportunities, but just can you talk about how you sort of weigh that against the stock now is trading at sub-60% book value, sub-55% book value ex AOCI, so how does the valuation of the stock fit into your sort of thesis around how you think about deploying capital given the accretion you could get from buybacks?

Dominic Frederico

We realized that, that is an outstanding transaction that the company could do. But we have our strategy in terms of new business offer relative to the rating and the composition of the capital. We anticipate making inroads on the composition of capital through the end of the year and continuing into next year. At which point in time, we'll then have the flexibility right now our buffer and the reserve for new business made up of hard cap. .

As we switch out to soft capital and that the hard cap would then be there for either growth or return, I think you'll see a very different analysis being done. So we've got some issues we're dealing with relative to opportunities. And obviously, as we work through things like Brightline, which we are very pleased with the outcome that we expected then subcreditors having plan more equity into the deal. We're happy with our position. And as that now runs its way to bankruptcy court, we'll look at, once again, capital over and over again.

Each quarter, we take a hard will get it and see where we want to go and where our opportunities are. The Life Re business is going to take some factor as well, which we're very happy with. And as that runs its course through 2027 and towards the end of this year, you'll get a very clear insight as to where the capital is going and where we're using it for.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Geoffrey Dunn with Dowling & Partners. Jeffrey.

Geoffrey Dunn

With Brightline, what should we be watching for that would justify that exposure coming off the BIG list and getting upgraded internally?

Dominic Frederico

Internally, it could take a little bit of a while, but what you should look for them exisiting bankruptcy and therefore, solidifying the amount of new capital we've got. And then back to the actual performance of the railroad, the growth in revenues, the ability to now the operating expenses and debt service. Remember, the service is significantly less than it was before. And we are at the top of the stack, therefore, we think that this has got real opportunity to cure all their problems, and it already went in our books from BIG to BIG 1, so we're telling you that it's been more remote from us ever having to think about paying a loss.

Robert Bailenson

Yes. So we've already recognized that benefit coming from BIG 2 to BIG 1.

Geoffrey Dunn

Right. And then with respect to the shorter duration deals and the faster premium recognition, can you give a rough mix shift idea of what kind of mix of your earned premium were those type of deals maybe 2 years ago? Where are we today? And given the growth, can you give like a 5% band of where you think it's going to go? I'm trying to gauge the speed at which we can see that impact over the next couple of years?

Robert Bailenson

Yes. Rough numbers, I'll tell you, Jeff, I mean, 2 years ago, it was probably down 5%. Now it's up to -- really up to 27% year-to-date. So a shorter duration of business and structured finance is roughly 27% to 30% of the total. And I expect as we continue to grow that business, I think it's going to be even higher. So the fund finance business really was -- really, really made that go much faster, and we continue to grow in the fund finance business. So like I said, it's 30% of Structured Finance now and I expect that to grow -- it could go up 30% to 40%. .

Dominic Frederico

Adding into the supplement and analysis of where the earned premium comes from. So you can see kind of the impact this new product type and structured finance is going to have on earned premium. -- that's what.

Robert Bailenson

It's going to be a larger percentage of the total.

Operator

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back to our host, Robert Tucker for closing remarks. .

Robert Tucker

Thank you, operator. I'd like to thank everyone for joining us on today's call. If you have additional questions, please feel free to give us a call. Thank you very much.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your lines. Have a great day.