The New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank is scheduled to sell $40 million of bonds Tuesday.
The proceeds will fund loans to the state’s local governments for the purpose of refunding U.S. Department of Agriculture loans, and will also be deposited into a reserve fund.
Wells Fargo Securities will price the bonds. Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP is bond counsel.
The bonds will have maturities from 2013 through 2039, and some will be subject to early redemption.
The bonds are general obligations of the bond bank, and are not guaranteed by the state.
Moody’s Investors Service has assigned the bonds its Aa3 rating with a stable outlook.
Moody’s analysts cite the state’s moral obligation pledge, the large pool of over 150 borrowers, strong legal security including underlying local general obligation pledges, and cash-funded debt service reserve as credit strengths.
Challenges include exposure to fiscal pressures at the state level, average creditworthiness of the borrower pool, and limited liquidity outside of the debt-service reserve fund.
Standard & Poor’s has assigned its AA rating and a stable outlook based on the bank’s strong enterprise risk profile and strong financial risk profile.
“The stable outlook reflects Standard & Poor’s expectation that strong program features, the borrowers’ diverse credit profile, and sound reserves associated with the program will continue,” analysts said in a report.
The New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank was created in 1977 as an instrumentality of the state to assist qualified state entities in obtaining financing for eligible purposes.
The bank has issued $2.5 billion of bonds, of which $650 million is outstanding.
