DALLAS — Volume slows this week in Texas, with just two deals of more than $100 million expected to price.
The Tarrant County Cultural Education Facilities Finance Corp. plans to issue about $173.9 million of Series 2008A hospital revenue bonds at some point this week on behalf of Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple.
JPMorgan is sole underwriter for the negotiated sale.
The deal is rated AA-minus by Standard & Poor’s and Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service. There is no rating from Fitch Ratings.
Prosper Independent School District plans to offer about $104.1 million of unlimited school building and refunding bonds at some point this week. Southwest Securities Inc. is lead manager for the sale and First Southwest Co. is the financial adviser to the North Texas district.
In November, voters in the small, but growing Collin County district approved one of the largest school bond packages in Texas history — $710 million.
Enrollment within the district, which is about 35 miles north of Dallas, is about 2,800 students.
Officials plan to build four elementary schools, a middle school, and second high school with proceeds from the new authorization, as 1,000 new students are expected each of the next two years with continued growth through 2016. Total enrollment is projected at between 40,000 and 50,000 in about 20 years once the land within the district reaches, or, at least approaches, complete build out.
The area is still about 70% agricultural. The total population of the district, which includes parts of Frisco and some areas in eastern Denton County, is about 9,500 residents.
Aside from the most recent bond package and one approved in 2004, the only other school-bond package ever approved by Prosper voters occurred in 1963 when a $320,000 referendum was passed.
At the 1960 Census, there were 41,247 people living in all of Collin County. Now, the county is one of the fastest-growing areas of the country with a population of nearly 700,000 that is up more than 42% since the 2000 Census.
Fitch Friday afternoon affirmed the BBB-plus underlying rating for the district’s outstanding unlimited tax bonds. The district also has applied for the triple-A rated guarantee from the state Permanent School Fund.
Montgomery County will issue $35 million of variable-rate bonds at some point this week through a negotiated sale led by First Southwest.
RBC Capital Markets is the financial adviser to the county, and Fulbright & Jaworski LLP is bond counsel.
The growing county is just north of Harris County and is grappling with ways to ease traffic congestion. The Woodlands, one of the first master-planned suburban communities in the country is in the southernmost part of Montgomery County.
In November, Standard & Poor’s raised its underlying rating on the county to AA-minus from A-plus based on continued tax-base expansion and strong budget controls.
Moody’s rates the county’s credit at Aa3 due to the tax-base expansion and strong financial management. The county’s fiscal 2008 taxable value rose 13.4% from the year earlier to $26.5 billion, and officials attribute 50% of that growth to new-home construction, according to analysts.
In the competitive market Tuesday, Hurst plans to offer $16.1 million of tax and waterworks and sewer system revenue certificates of obligation.
First Southwest is financial adviser to the town of about 39,000 in the mid-cities section of the DFW metroplex. Fulbright & Jaworski is bond counsel. Hurst is about 10 miles east of Fort Worth and 25 miles west of Dallas.
Insurance for the bonds, which are structured as serials with final maturity in 2038, will be at the bidder’s option. Hurst’s GO debt is rated AA by Standard & Poor’s and Aa3 by Moody’s.
Proceeds will fund expansions to the water and sewer system and street improvements.
Beaumont Independent School District plans to offer $65 million of school building bonds this week. Southwest Securities is lead manager for the sale.
This is the second sale by the Gulf Coast district from a November authorization of $388.6 million, and the second new-money bond sale by the district in about a decade.
RBC Capital Markets is the financial adviser to the district, and Orgain, Bell & Tucker LLP and Oliver W. Sprott Jr. are co-bond counsel.
Prior to November’s election, district voters had approved only one bond referendum in the past 30 years. As recently as 2002, voters rejected a bond referendum despite the district identifying more than $300 million of needs at that time. The district’s 30 schools average 50 years old.
Total enrollment of about 19,300 is down from almost 21,000 in 2001. The district uses more than 200 portable classrooms to alleviate overcrowding in some schools.
This week’s sale will be backed by the state’s triple-A rated Permanent School Fund. Beaumont ISD carries underlying ratings of A-plus from Standard & Poor’s and A1 from Moody’s.
New Braunfels Independent School District is issuing $17 million of school building bonds this week following upgrades to AA-minus from A-plus by both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.
Analysts said the higher rating reflects the central Texas district’s “historically very strong financial performance and position.”
Fitch said the upgrade also reflects substantial increases to the general-fund reserves despite enrollment growth pressures and the new state school funding formula.
The negotiated sale, which exhausts a $42 million bond package passed in 2006, will be led by First Southwest. The bonds come to market with the triple-A wrap of the PSF.
Proceeds will complete the projects from the ’06 authorization for one new elementary school, expansion of a middle school, increased transportation services, and an upgrade of the high school field house.
