Connecticut's $183M Offering Leads Another Skimpy Slate

Investors will be hard-pressed to find any deals above $200 million this week as just a small handful of new financings are expected to crawl into the desolate primary market.

Volume will shrink to an estimated $2.05 billion this week, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer, and will be among the lowest so far this year.

The skimpy supply comes on the heels of a revised $4.46 billion of volume that priced last week, according to Thomson Reuters. About $8 billion per week was typical prior to 2011, where issuance thus far is at an 11-year low.

Through March 4, issuers have sold about $31.5 billion in debt — less than half of the $65 billion sold during the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters. Connecticut’s $183.3 million sale of state revolving fund general revenue bonds is the largest deal slated for pricing this week. Ramirez & Co. will price the debt Tuesday following a one-day retail order period last Friday.

The clean water and drinking water bonds are rated triple-A by all three major rating agencies and are structured to mature from 2012 to 2028.

In the competitive market, Boston is planning to issue a four-pronged general obligation financing Wednesday totaling $181.54 million.

Rated AA-plus by Standard & Poor’s, the deal’s largest portion consists of $86.36 million of debt maturing from 2012 to 2031, followed by $41.63 million of taxable qualified school construction bonds maturing from 2017 to 2026.

The remaining two series, worth $38.9 million and $14.65 million, mature from 2012 to 2027 and 2013 to 2016, respectively.

Lubbock, Texas will bring $144 million of debt to the negotiated market Tuesday in a loan priced by Morgan Keegan & Co.

The deal will be priced in three series, the largest of which consists of $114 million of tax and waterworks surplus revenue certificates of participation maturing from 2012 to 2031. In addition, $13.5 million of GO bonds maturing from 2012 to 2031 and $16.2 million of refunding GOs maturing from 2012 to 2022 round out the deal. The bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-plus by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.

Other deals scheduled for pricing this week include a $116 million GO public improvement bond sale from Wake County, N.C., and a $105 million GO sale from Minneapolis, both of which are rated triple-A by all three major rating agencies and planned for competitive pricing Tuesday.

The Wake County deal is scheduled to mature from 2012 to 2030, while the Minneapolis issue will include two series of GO convention center refunding bonds — $71.25 million issued as taxable bonds maturing from 2018 to 2020, and $33.8 million offered as tax-exempts maturing from 2011 to 2017.

In addition, a $109 million financing from Hancock County, Ohio, is slated for pricing Wednesday. Bank of America Merrill Lynch will price the bonds, which are rated A3 by Moody’s and A-minus by Standard & Poor’s, on behalf of Blanchard Valley Hospital.

Last week, the largest negotiated deal was a $400 million New York City GO loan that came with a bifurcated 2020 final maturity that yielded 3.40% with 3.5% and 5% coupons, 62 basis points higher than the corresponding triple-A Municipal Market Data yield on the day of pricing. The bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.

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