You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: I'm pleased to say that in the first quarter of 2021, we continue to benefit from the value proposition that our financial guaranty provides in challenging times, which was further recognized last year as well.
Driven by our highest first quarter new business production in U.S. public finance since we acquired AGM in 2009, Assured Guaranty generated $86 million of PVP, 69% above last year's first quarter PVP and more than in all but one first quarter since 2009.
Key shareholder value measures also reached new highs at quarter end of $79.44 for adjusted operating shareholder's equity per share and $116.56 for adjusted book value per share, as we continued our successful capital management program.
Additionally, adjusted operating income per share of $0.55 was 53% higher than in the first quarter of 2020.
The first quarter of this year is the fourth consecutive quarter in which we saw our total net par outstanding increase, demonstrating fundamental organic growth in our core business.
This is a positive sign for our effort to restore the size of our insured portfolio and the related predictable base of future earnings embedded in our insured transactions.
We generally expect to see an upward trend in our portfolio size as quarterly run-off diminishes and we continue to originate new business.
The U.S. municipal bond market was very strong in the first three months of 2021.
Par volume sold in the primary U.S. municipal bond market reached its highest first quarter level since the Great Recession, $104.5 billion, which industry insured par neared $8.5 billion, setting a 12-year record for first quarter insured volume.
Strong demand for bond insurance led to a 76% more insured par sold than in the last year's first quarter, significantly outperforming the 19% increase in total municipal issuance.
The insurance penetration rate of 8.1% during the first quarter of 2021 was higher than the 2020 full year rate of 7.6% and higher than every first quarter and annual penetration rate since 2009.
Assured Guaranty widen its lead in new issue market share during the first quarter.
Our 65% share of insured market municipal -- insured municipal par sold was better than our market share in any quarter since 2014.
The $5.5 billion of new issue par sold with our insurance in the quarter was the highest amount we insured in any first quarter since 2010.
It was almost 2.5 times our insured par in last year's first quarter and our primary market transaction count of 252 was up 57%.
These year-over-year quarterly comparisons were influenced by the pandemic-related market disruption in the first quarter of 2020; but it would be -- but what may be a more meaningful comparison, our first quarter insured par sold was almost 20% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2020.
During this year's first quarter, we insured $100 million or more on eight different transactions, with aggregate insured par totaling $2.25 billion.
Large transactions tend to attract institutional investors and our leadership in this category reflects a growing appetite for Assured guaranteed insurance in the institutional market.
Even as there have been signs of a recovering economy and better than expected municipal revenues, the persistence of the global pandemic and what it has taught the market about economic unpredictability have shown that investors have good reasons to remain concerned about downgrade risk, trading value stability and liquidity, which our guarantee has the potential to address.
We believe those concerns combined within a appreciation of our overall value proposition were behind our ability in the first quarter to ensure $1.5 billion of par on 27 transactions we signed AA underlying ratings by at least one of the two leading rating agencies.
The stable outlooks on Assured Guaranty's owned AA ratings provide an extra level of comfort for investors in these high-quality bonds.
In international infrastructure finance during the first quarter, we executed two international transactions, neither which created any new risk exposure.
One transaction was an extension of the debt service reserve guarantee that we provided through Welsh Water in 2019 as a substitute for their bank liquidity facility.
The other involved converting a convention center project financing that we insured years ago into a direct obligation of a sub-sovereign.
Additionally, we made progress on important new transactions, two of which have already closed since quarter-end, generating over $23 million of international PVP in the second quarter.
While the pandemic delayed a number of projects, it also had the effect of widening credit spreads, and therefore creating opportunities for us.
We believe the UK and other governments' efforts to provide stimulus through infrastructure investment will require a significant amount of private financing to be fully successful, and that we will have a part to play in that.
We have a robust pipeline of potential infrastructure opportunities and have been receiving an increased variety of new business inquiries.
We also believe investor appetite for our product remain strong in our international markets.
We've continued our efforts to maintain and expand our relationships.
Our Structured Finance and international underwriting groups are collaborating on various portfolio guarantee transactions.
We believe this is an area we can help institutions optimize the capital associated with their infrastructure portfolios using principles that could be applied to other asset types as well.
Additionally, the Structured Finance Group is currently processing or in discussions for potential transactions in diverse categories, including real assets, trade receivables, life insurance, CLOs, equipment leases and subscription finance facilities for private equity funds.
Importantly, and relates to our financial strength and stability, our disciplined and diversified approach to writing new business along with our loss mitigation activities has helped to reduce the below investment grade percentage of our insured portfolio to just 3.2% of net par outstanding.
About half of our big exposures to Puerto Rico are [Indecipherable] and there have been considerable positive news out of Puerto Rico.
As I mentioned on our last call, we conditionally agreed in February to support a revised GO and Public Buildings Authority Plan Support Agreement with the Oversight Board and other creditors of the Commonwealth and PBA.
We did so with the express understanding that the government parties would work with us to make that agreement part of a more comprehensive solution that also addressed related Puerto Rico credits, including what are known as the clawback credits such as revenue bonds of the Highways and Transportation Authority and Convention Center District Authority.
A big step toward such a resolution took place on April 12th when we, the Oversight Board and others agreed in principle to a framework for settling our insured exposures to the HTA and CCDA credits, subject to definitive documentation of an HTA/CCDA Plan Support Agreement.
We have now finalized that documentation as announced on May 5th and have reaffirmed our support for the GO/PBA PSA.
It will still be months until the plan of adjustment incorporating these PSAs and the PREPA RSA are approved and implemented.
But with these settlements, we have agreed to terms on over 93% of our Puerto Rico net par exposure.
Outside of these agreements, the Company has only $241 million of additional Puerto Rico net par exposure, almost all of which relates to credits that have not missed any principal or interest payments.
Lastly, once again, we reassess the potential impact of COVID-19 on our insured portfolio, especially in light of the $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package enacted during the first quarter.
And that review further indicated that the pandemic has not given us a reason to establish significant new loss reserves, and we do not expect any ultimate losses from first time municipal bond insurance claims that arise specifically from COVID-19.
In addition to having a great quarter in the financial guarantee business, we made good progress in the asset management business.
The CLO market blossomed during the first quarter with total supply, including new issues, revise, resets and reissues setting quarterly records of $106.3 billion in the United States and EUR26 billion in Europe.
AssuredIM issued one CLO in each of those markets during the period, we also reset a CLO which extended its life, and therefore it's fees, and we sold 71 million of CLO equity from our legacy funds.
We reduced our total non-fee earning CLO AUM to $2.4 billion from the $3.6 billion three months earlier, while increasing total CLO AUM by almost $0.5 billion to $14.3 billion.
CLO management fees for the quarter were more than double of those of last year's first quarter.
The outlook for this business is positive.
We recently opened three CLO warehouses and remain focused on raising more third-party capital.
They bring variety -- varied backgrounds as leaders in Public Finance, Structured Finance and Investment Management, and their insights and wealth of experience will be off great value to our Board's strategic decision making.
Looking toward the rest of the year, we expect strong investor demand for municipal bonds, exemplified by the approximate $30 billion of inflows that municipal bond mutual funds and ETFs took in during the first quarter.
We believe high demand for municipal bonds are likely to be met by issuers' needs to raise more capital for infrastructure development in order to amplify the benefit of infrastructure funding likely to come from Washington, as well as by their desire to refinance and borrow while the interest rates remain low.
As long-term yields rise, long-term municipals may become an attractive and safer alternative to corporate bonds, especially for high net worth investors wary of potential tax increases.
We believe this mix of market conditions will provide us with many public finance opportunities, large and small.
As finance activities revive around the world, we have already seen a pick up since quarter-end in our international financial guarantee business, and we expect to complete some large Structured Finance transactions as the year progresses.
We also believe you will see significant growth in our Asset Management business.
We've been through a lot in the last -- past 14 months.
We believe the challenges of this period have made the market even more aware of the resilience of our business model, the dedication and professionalism of our employees and the benefits of our financial guarantees.
As always, we are committed to creating value on behalf of our shareholders, as well as for our clients and the investors who place their trust in our credit discipline and financial strength.
I would like to start by highlighting our two key metrics for new business production: PVP and third-party inflows of assets under management.
As Dominic mentioned, first quarter U.S. public finance PVP was our strongest first quarter since 2009 and was the largest component of our $86 million first quarter PVP.
Strong PVP results over the last several quarters have helped us maintain our deferred premium revenues, our storehouse or future premium earnings at approximately $3.8 billion since the end of 2019.
In the Asset Management segment, total third-party inflows of $873 million was primarily driven by CLO issuance, which helped to increase our fee earning AUM by 11% in the first quarter of 2021 from $12.9 billion to $14.4 billion.
In terms of adjusted operating income, we earned $43 million or $0.55 per share in the first quarter of 2021 compared with $33 million or $0.36 per share in the first quarter of 2020.
While this represents a 30% increase year-over-year, I want to highlight that our first quarter 2021 results include a one-time $13 million after-tax write-off of an intangible asset attributable to the insurance licenses of MAC, or Municipal Assurance Corp.
MAC was our U.S. muni-only insurance subsidiary until we merged it into our larger New York insurance subsidiary Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp, or AGM, on April 1, 2021.
Excluding this write-off, first quarter 2021 adjusted operating income would have been $56 million, representing an increase of 70% over first quarter 2020.
The restructuring simplifies our capital and organizational structure, eliminates the cost of maintaining an additional legal entity, and is expected to increase future statutory net investment income and the regulatory dividend paying capacity of the remaining U.S. insurance subsidiaries over the next few years.
The Insurance segment's first quarter contribution to adjusted operating income was $79 million compared with $85 million in the first quarter of 2020.
Excluding the MAC license write-off, adjusted operating income would have been $92 million or an increase of $7 million.
Within the Insurance segment, total income from investment portfolio increased by $18 million or 24%.
The investment portfolio generates net investment income from its fixed maturity portfolio and equity in earnings from investees from alternative investments carried under the equity method.
Our fixed maturity and short-term investments account for the largest portion of the portfolio, generating net investment income of $73 million in first quarter 2021 compared with $83 million in first quarter 2020.
The decrease in net investment income was primarily due to lower average balances in the externally managed fixed maturity investment portfolio, which declined due to dividends paid by the insurance subsidiaries that were then used for AGL share repurchases, lower short-term interest rates and lower income from our loss mitigation securities.
Equity in earnings of investees primarily include AssuredIM Funds and several other alternative investments managed by third parties.
The AssuredIM Funds, primarily the CLOs and asset-based funds, generated a gain of $10 million in first quarter 2021 compared with a loss of $10 million in the first quarter of 2020.
Alternative investments, managed by the third parties, generated gains of $9 million in the first quarter 2021.
As a reminder, equity in earnings of investees is a function of mark-to-market movements attributable to these short IM Funds, and therefore more volatile than the net investment income on the fixed maturity portfolio and will fluctuate from period to period.
As we shift our current fixed maturity long-term assets into these alternative investments, the related net investment income may decline.
However, over the long term, we expect the enhanced returns on the alternative investment portfolio to be over 10%, which exceeds the returns on the fixed maturity portfolio.
Scheduled net earned premiums weren't consistent -- were consistent at $107 million year-over-year as recent new business production substantially offset the decline in earnings on Structured Finance transactions.
First quarter 2021 refundings resulted in accelerations of $16 [Phonetic] million compared with $50 million in the first quarter 2020.
Loss expense was $30 million in first quarter 2021 compared with $18 million in first quarter 2020.
First quarter 2021 includes loss expense on both public finance, particularly Puerto Rico, as well as U.S. RMBS exposures.
First quarter 2020 expenses consisted mainly of Puerto Rico loss expenses, offset by a benefit on U.S. RMBS, due in large part to increase excess spread.
Net economic loss development of $13 million in the first quarter of 2021, primarily consists of $11 million in loss development on U.S. RMBS, which was mainly attributable to lower excess spread offset by benefits due to changes in discount rates and improved performance and recoveries on previously charged off loans in certain second lien transactions.
The economic loss -- the economic development attributable to change in discount rates for all transactions was a benefit of $48 million for first quarter 2021.
Our expected losses as of first quarter 2021 reflect, in our scenarios, the terms of the Puerto Rico settlement agreement reached this week, which should also significantly reduce the future volatility of these reserves.
These agreements, in addition to our previous PREPA agreement represent over 93% of our net Puerto Rico par outstanding or 46% of total below investment grade net par outstanding.
Turning to the Asset Management segment.
Adjusted operating income was a loss of $7 million in the first quarter 2021 compared with a loss of $9 million in first quarter 2020.
Our long-term view of the Asset Management segment is optimistic.
Since the acquisition of AssuredIM, we have made great progress in advancing our strategic goals: we have liquidated assets in wind-down funds; increased fee earnings CLO AUM through the issuance of new CLOs and the sale of CLO equity from legacy funds; raised capital for new opportunities funds; and achieved attractive returns on the funds we have established since the acquisition.
In first quarter 2021, the increase in management fees from CLOs and opportunity and liquid strategies more than offset the decline in fees from our wind-down funds as our core strategies pick up momentum after a difficult 2020.
The Corporate division mainly consists of interest expense on the U.S. holding company's debt, as well as Board of Directors and other corporate expenses.
Adjusted operating loss for the Corporate division was $29 million in first quarter 2021 compared with $39 million in the first quarter of 2020.
First quarter 2020 included losses related to an investment impairment charge and a loss on the extinguishment of debt.
On the consolidated adjusted operating income basis, the effective tax rate may fluctuate from period to period based on the proportion of income in different tax jurisdictions.
In first quarter 2021, the effective tax rate was $15 million -- I'm sorry, 15% compared with 24.7% in first quarter 2020.
Turning to our capital management strategy, in the first quarter of 2021, we repurchased 2 million shares for $77 million at an average price of $38.83 per share.
Since then, we have continued the program and repurchased an additional 600,000 shares for $28 million.
Since the beginning of our repurchase program in January of 2013, we returned $3.8 billion to shareholders, resulting in 64% reduction in total shares outstanding.
Accumulative effect of these repurchases was a benefit of approximately $30 in adjusted operating shareholder's equity and $53 in adjusted book value per share, which helped drive these metrics to new record highs of over $79 in adjusted operating shareholder's equity and over $116 million in adjusted book value per share.
From a liquidity standpoint, the holding companies currently have cash and investments of approximately $218 [Phonetic] million, of which $60 million resides in AGL.
These funds are available for liquidity needs or for the use in pursuit of our strategic initiatives to either expand our business or repurchase shares to manage our capital.

user
q1 adjusted operating earnings per share $0.55.

assistant