DALLAS — Texas issuers hope to entice investors with a healthy ration of debt in a holiday-shortened week highlighted by the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama.
The $664 million of issues on the calendar includes 11 negotiated deals worth a combined $628 million and five competitive totaling $36 million. In addition, nine deals worth $340 million remain in the day-to-day mode.
Topping the list will be $215 million of Tarrant County Cultural Education Facilities Finance Corp. revenue refunding bonds for the Baylor Health Care System. Merrill Lynch & Co. leads the deal with Kaufman Hall as financial adviser. Ratings have not yet been posted.
San Antonio will provide an attractive rating for investors seeking quality as it issues $175 million of water system revenue and refunding bonds through negotiation with Citi. First Southwest Co. is San Antonio’s financial adviser. The bonds carry ratings of AA from Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s and Aa2 from Moody’s Investors Service.
The triple-A-rated Dallas suburb of Irving expects to go to market this week with $130 million of convention center hotel occupancy tax revenue certificates of obligation with JPMorgan as senior manager. The deal was also on last week’s calendar, but did not make it to market. Co-managers are Estrada Hinojosa & Co., Banc of America Securities, Morgan Keegan & Co., Oppenheimer & Co., RBC and Wells Fargo Brokerage Services.
First Southwest is the city’s financial adviser, and Vinson & Elkins serves as bond counsel.
The certificates will be divided between current interest serials with final maturity in 2038 and capital appreciation mode.
Proceeds of the bonds will be used to build a convention center at the Las Colinas Urban Center, a business and residential development near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport that features waterways, a golf course, hotels, office towers, and residential buildings. The convention center is expected to open in 2010.
The Round Rock Independent School District also expects to issue $150 million of general obligation bonds. The deal was delayed last week as it awaited ratings and other paperwork. Financial adviser First Southwest Co. posted the preliminary official statement Friday in consultation with senior manager RBC Capital Markets.
Round Rock ISD bonds do not carry Permanent School Fund backing because the district is considered too wealthy to qualify. The district’s underlying rating is also strong at AA from Standard & Poor’s and Aa1 from Moody’s.
