Aspen Insurance Holdings Announces $200 Million Accelerated Share Repurchase

Hamilton, BERMUDA - 06 January, 2010 - Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited ("Aspen" or “The Company”) (NYSE:AHL) announced that it has entered into an accelerated share repurchase program with Goldman, Sachs & Co. to buy back $200 million of Aspen's ordinary shares. A substantial majority of the ordinary shares will be received and cancelled within the current quarter.  The Company may be entitled to receive additional ordinary shares from Goldman Sachs based generally on the average of the daily market prices of the Company’s ordinary shares during the term of the agreement. The program is expected to be completed within approximately ten months.

Based on Aspen's closing share price on 04 January, 2010, the $200 million share repurchase represents approximately 9.3 percent of the Company's total market capitalization.

The repurchase will be made under the terms of Aspen's share repurchase program authorized by the Board of Directors and announced on 06 February, 2008 and will complete the full amount of that program. The purchase will be funded with cash on hand and the sale of investment assets. The ordinary shares will be retired once purchased.

Richard Houghton, Chief Financial Officer of Aspen, said: "The accelerated share repurchase program we have announced today reflects our continued commitment to active capital management including the return of capital to our shareholders where we believe it is in shareholders’ best interests for us to do so.  We will continue to manage our capital throughout the year and evaluate options available to us to generate attractive risk adjusted returns for shareholders.”

About Aspen

Aspen provides reinsurance and insurance coverage to clients in various domestic and global markets through wholly-owned subsidiaries and offices in Bermuda, France, Ireland, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. For the nine months ended 30 September, 2009, Aspen reported gross written premiums of $1,661.4 million, net income of $347.6 million and total assets of $8.2 billion. Its operating subsidiaries have been assigned a rating of "A" ("Strong") by Standard & Poor's, an "A" ("Excellent") by A.M. Best and an "A2" ("Good") by Moody's Investors Service. For more information about Aspen, please visit www.aspen.bm.