Billionaire Ross Says Decision on Bond Insurance Investment Coming Soon, Looking at Options
In an interview aired on CNBC, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross on Tuesday said he expects to decide soon whether to invest $1 billion or more in the hard-hit U.S. bond insurance sector. He stated that he would be coming to a conclusion within the next few weeks and "very shortly."
When asked whether he was focusing exclusively on Ambac Financial Group Inc, the second-largest bond insurer, Ross said he was looking at more than one company. He did not elaborate.
Not many people in the private sector are willing to put capital in the bond insurers, because there are potential big losses looming for the companies, Ross said.
"It's not clear that there's enough rate of return from the good businesses to justify the amount of capital being put in as equity," Ross said.
Ross revealed last week that he was considering investing more than $1 billion in bond insurers, which have seen their credit ratings under attack amid a collapse in the sub-prime mortgage sector and resulting lock-down in credit markets.
Published on February 5, 2008
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