Fresh Supply Coming From Texas, New York, and Louisiana

The municipal market will get a boost of fresh supply this week as issuers from Texas, New York, and Louisiana prepare to price some of the largest deals to surface in weeks with volume estimated to be $4.34 billion, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

While still noticeably lower than the $8 billion weekly average of last year, the expected volume is nearly twice the revised $2.62 billion that actually came to market last week.

The boost in supply will come on the heels of three and a half weeks of rising yields.

On Friday, longer-term tax-exempt yields jumped two or three basis points. Weakening Treasuries gave the municipal market some direction as new-issue supply remained slim.

The 10-year tax-exempt bond yield rose two basis points Friday to 3.27%, its highest level since Feb. 15. Its yield has climbed 37 points since a recent low on March 16, according to the Municipal Market Data’s triple-A scale.

The triple-A curve in 2041 ended at a 4.85% — five basis points higher than where it began last week, according to MMD.

The New York Liberty Development Corp. will lead off the activity with a $900 million sale of Liberty revenue bonds for the World Trade Center 4 ­project.

The deal, which will be priced by Goldman, Sachs & Co. on Wednesday, is structured with three term bonds — 2031, 2041, and 2047.

The bonds are rated AA-minus by Standard & Poor’s and A-plus by Fitch Ratings.

The North Texas Tollway Authority, meanwhile, will sell bonds and notes in two separate deals that total $1.22 billion.

The larger of the deals is $874 million of special project system revenue bonds. Citi will offer the bonds to retail investors on Wednesday, with an official pricing for institutions on Thursday.

The bonds are rated AA by Standard & Poor’s and AA-minus by Fitch.

The authority will also sell $351 million of taxable bond anticipation notes on Wednesday for retail investors and on Thursday for institutions.

Deals priced last week came at yields and spreads that convinced some buyers to participate, but activity was by no means brisk, according to a New York trader.

“The deals that came were priced at levels where there was a lot of interest by some investors,” the trader said, but added that the deals were priced into an otherwise relatively sleepy market characterized by low trading volume and continued outflows from municipal bond mutual funds.

According to Lipper FMI, outflows from municipal bond mutual funds that report their flows weekly increased to $1.14 billion for the week ended April 6, compared to $403.60 million the previous week.

“The outflows of muni bond funds and the low volume of issuance doesn’t allow a lot of price discovery,” a different New York trader said. “When you have a large number of deals being priced, you get better price discovery.”

“This has been one of the slower weeks I have seen in a long time,” the trader said. “It’s just very low supply, no issuance, and continued redemptions from mutual funds, so the buyers are limited right now.”

One of the largest deals last week was a New York Transitional Finance Authority revenue sale rated triple-A that was priced with a 2025 final maturity to yield 4.15% — a spread of roughly 10 basis points higher than where it usually trades compared to the MMD triple-A curve.

“I assume the deals next week will get some attention,” the trader said. “There is not a lot of demand, but at the right price you can find buyers.” 

A $509 million sale of taxable student loan-backed floating-rate notes from the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority may or may not be priced this week. RBC Capital Markets is slated to price the deal, but an underwriter on Friday could not confirm the deal’s timing.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority will issue $292.2 million of dedicated tax fund bonds in a negotiated deal expected to be priced by Jefferies & Co. for retail investors on Tuesday and for institutions on ­Wednesday.

The deal is structured with three series of tax-exempt bonds. Two of the series mature from 2019 to 2028, and the third matures from 2030 to 2033.

The bonds are rated AA by Standard & Poor’s and AA-minus by Fitch.

In the competitive market, Michigan will sell $150 million of taxable general obligation school bonds on Thursday with a structure that matures from 2014 to 2023.

The bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA-minus by Standard & Poor’s.

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