Idaho Bond Bank Achieves Largest Deal in Bank's History

LOS ANGELES — The Idaho Bond Bank Authority said it achieved $8.4 million in savings on the largest deal in its history.

Seattle-Northwest Securities Corp. acted as the underwriter on the $66.34 million Series D bonds priced on Nov. 28.

"The deal is the largest in the history of the Idaho Bond Bank Authority in terms of the total par amount, the savings generated, and the number of participants involved," said Cameron Arial, a vice president in the Boise office of Zions Bank Public Finance, financial advisor to most of the nine municipalities involved.

That deal followed the bond bank's $19 million Series C new money and refunding pricing in September for Boise County and Twin Falls.

JPMorgan was the winning bidder in that competitive sale, which officials said resulted in a total estimated net present value savings of $1.2 million on the refunding.

Idaho residents approved a constitutional amendment in 2000 creating the bond bank, which enables municipalities to pool smaller bond issues into a single, large issue and secure more favorable rates and terms than they could achieve individually.

"Individually, it is very difficult for a small issuer to take a bond to market," Idaho Treasurer and bond bank authority chair Ron Crane said in a statement. 'Through the Bond Bank, we can help them gain access to the capital markets at more favorable rates than they could achieve on their own."

Moody's Investors Service assigned an Aa1 rating to the bonds citing the broad pledge of Idaho's sales tax revenues as ample coverage for debt service.

The cities involved spanned the state reaching from Nampa in the west to St. Anthony in the southeast and north to Coeur d'Alene.

The two series funded one new project and refunded outstanding loans from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development.

To pull the deal together, Arial said he spent nine months working with his clients, the bond bank, IDEQ and USDA, to identify loans that could achieve savings through a refunding.

"Through my conversations with IDEQ, I learned they had essentially reached the cap on their revolving loan fund," Arial said. "They had money coming in, but nowhere near enough money to match demand for the fund."

The refundings also recharged IDEQ's revolving loan fund by returning $66.3 million to the agency to be loaned to cities for the municipal wastewater and drinking water projects it helps to fund.

"We have been managing our funds pretty aggressively," said Tim Wendland, IDEQ's loan program manager. "We only had $11 million available, so this was a windfall for us."

Wendland already has applicants lined up for projects and expects the agency will run through the new capacity in six months.

Boise-based law firm Skinner Fawcett acted as bond counsel for the bond bank. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP acted as tax counsel.

Boise-based Moore, Smith, Buxton, and Turcke acted as counsel to the series D and C participants with the exception of Coeur d'Alene, which was represented by Boise-based Hawley, Troxell, Ennis and Holly.

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