John Miller, a veteran municipal bond investment banker and financial advisor, has been hired by Build America Mutual as a senior advisor.
In his role, he will focus on boosting the primary market's use of bond insurance for sizable infrastructure and public power projects. Miller was most recently a managing director at American Public Infrastructure, a strategic advisor to owners and investors in water, power, and other projects. Before that, he worked as a managing director at both Citi and Public Financial Management.
The new hire comes on the heels of the firm's growth in bond insurance in the first quarter of 2024 when BAM insured $3.350 billion, or a 47% market share, in 166 deals. This is up 44.4% from the first quarter of 2023 when the firm insured $2.320 billion, or a 40.5% market share, in 136 deals, according to LSEG data.
"Institutional investor demand for BAM-insured municipals has increased, particularly for larger and higher-rated transactions from issuers who may not have actively considered insurance in recent years," said BAM CEO Seán W. McCarthy in a statement.
"John's experience financing major projects is the perfect background to work with underwriters and municipal advisors and help structure transactions to access that demand and minimize the cost of financing essential infrastructure," he said.
"There's an opportunity for issuers, bankers, and financial advisors to look at their financings with a fresh perspective — to think about BAM at the beginning of the process, and how they can use insurance as a tool to attract investors," Miller said. "The team at BAM has a deep understanding of the fundamental strengths of municipal credits, and I'm looking forward to helping identify more projects that can benefit from that knowledge and experience."
Miller's hiring is only one example of the firm expanding its reach as it increases the amount of bond insurance it provides.
"For BAM, it's a natural result of being a mutual insurer and having a mission that prioritizes efficient market access for our member-issuers and providing a strong, durable guaranty for investors," said Mike Stanton, head of strategy and communications at BAM.
As insurance has become more relevant to a broader range of transactions, the firm has increased its outreach to "make sure we can be responsive to more issuers and their deal teams," he said.
This has included opening an Austin-based regional office and bringing on senior advisors like Miller and Martin Arrick, BAM's head of healthcare, "who can work with issuers, underwriters and municipal advisors to explain BAM's approach to credit, and help them see how our guaranty can help increase investor demand for their new-issues," Stanton said.
