New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has delayed for a month oral presentations in the selection of underwriters and swap counterparties, the agency confirmed Wednesday.
The MTA pushed back to Sept. 15 its notification to firms whether they will be chosen to make oral presentations. Oral presentations for the short list of senior manager candidates were moved back two weeks to Oct. 4-6, halving the time between notification and presentations under the schedule laid out in the June 4 request for proposals.
Recommendations to the board will still be made at the authority’s October meeting.
MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said the authority couldn’t comment on the delays because it was their policy not to discuss RFPs still in progress. Responses were due June 30.
The RFP was the first the authority has issued for underwriters in five years. It requested that candidates submit ideas for creating a new credit using revenue streams enacted in last year’s state bailout. The centerpiece of the financial rescue package enacted last year has not performed as well as expected.
A payroll tax in the 12 counties served by the MTA was originally expected to generate $1.54 billion in 2010, but is now projected to come up $350 million short.
In May, the MTA selected two firms to serve as financial adviser and swap adviser from among 15 responses to a June 15, 2009, RFP. Eight finalists were chosen for oral interviews in July 2009.
The authority board approved Lamont Financial Services Corp. upon staff recommendation in May and Swap Financial Group LLC a month later after renegotiating fees. The firms replaced Goldman, Sachs & Co., which had served in both roles since 2000.
The MTA, which operates the largest mass transit system in North America, plans to issue $1.97 billion of debt in the remainder of 2010 and $1.64 billion, $2.05 billion, and $2.52 billion in the following three years, according to its website.
