Georgia’s $542M Leads Light Holiday-Shortened Slate

With the Thanksgiving holiday on the menu, issuers, underwriters, and bankers have very few deals scheduled to take place during the shortened trading week.

Estimated long-term volume is expected to shrink to $1.99 billion this week, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer — a noticeable drop from last week when a revised $9.74 billion of bonds were priced, according to Thomson Reuters.

The largest deal expected is a $541.5 million sale of Georgia unlimited-tax general obligation refunding bonds in the competitive market planned for today.

 Structured with serial bonds maturing from 2016 to 2021, the deal has natural triple-A ratings from Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings.

The Georgia sale will be followed by a $351 million GO refunding from New York slated to be priced competitively tomorrow. The bonds, which are structured to mature from 2010 to 2030, are rated Aa3 by Moody’s, AA by Standard & Poor’s, and AA-minus by Fitch.

In the negotiated sector, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority tomorrow enters the market with its second taxable Build America Bond sale of the year — a $280 million revenue issue that marks the final borrowing needed for the five-year, $6 billion rebuilding and expansion of the tollway system.

The authority expects to sell all of the bonds in a 2034 bullet maturity under the BAB program.

“The bullet maturity fits nicely around our existing debt portfolio,” said authority finance chief Michael Colsch. JPMorgan and Loop Capital Markets LLC are senior managers on the new sale.

Net toll and other revenues of the system secure the bonds.

Ahead of the sale, Fitch affirmed its AA-minus and negative outlook while Standard & Poor’s affirmed their respective AA-minus and Aa3 ratings, both with stable outlooks.

“The ratings reflect the tollway system’s size, essentiality, and strong financial profile,” Standard & Poor’s analyst Mary Ellen Wriedt wrote.

In addition, the Royal Oak, Mich., Hospital Finance Authority will sell $272.6 million sale of hospital revenue and refunding bonds this week .

The bonds — which are expected to be priced by Morgan Stanley tomorrow after a retail order period today — are being sold on behalf of the William Beaumont Hospital, a regional medical system headquartered in Royal Oak.

The structure of the deal was not yet available at press time Friday. The bonds are expected to be rated A1 by Moody’s and A by Standard & Poor’s.

Also in this week’s market, two other somewhat sizable negotiated deals are expected to surface.

The larger of the two is a $151.1 million sale of revenue anticipation certificates from the Richmond County, Ga., Hospital Authority on behalf of University Health Services Inc., which operates the 550-bed University Hospital based in Augusta, Ga.

The deal, which is rated A1 by Moody’s and A-plus by Standard & Poor’s, is planned for pricing by JPMorgan tomorrow with a structure that consists of serial bonds maturing from 2011 to 2019 and term bonds in 2024, 2029, and 2036.

Meanwhile, Chester County, Pa., will also make an appearance with $102.9 million of its gilt-edged GO bonds in a deal scheduled for today by senior book-runner Boenning & Scattergood Inc.

The deal is comprised of $61.7 million of tax-exempt refunding bonds maturing from 2010 to 2029, and $41.26 million of BABs maturing from 2030 to 2032. The bonds are rated natural triple-A by all three major rating agencies.

Yvette Shields contributed to this ­story.

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