DALLAS — Arizona State University will use $230 million of revenue bond proceeds for a variety of projects at its Tempe and satellite campuses.
The ASU deal that priced through negotiation with JPMorgan Tuesday also advance refunded $82 million of remaining principal on a 2002 issue that was scheduled for final maturity in 2027.
The new issue brought a yield of 3.85% on $30.1 million of 5% coupons maturing in 2042, according to Thomson Reuters. Maturities run annually through 2032 beginning in July 2013.
In 2037, about $24.4 million matures, with $5 million earning a 4.14% yield on 4% coupons and the rest earning 3.8% on 5% coupons.
The bonds are rated AA by Standard & Poor’s and Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service.
Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook to stable from negative ahead of this issue, while Moody’s maintained its stable outlook.
“The revised outlook reflects our view of the university’s strengthened balance sheet and financial resource ratios (although they are still low for the rating category) during the past two years, its moderated future debt-issuance plans, and its achievement of consistently positive operating surpluses during a constrained state funding environment,” Standard & Poor’s analyst Jessica Lukas wrote in the rating report.
RBC Capital Markets is financial advisor for the Arizona Board of Regents, which issued the bonds in its name. The board issues debt for Arizona’s three state university systems — the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona State in Tempe, and Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
The ASU deal followed one last month of $124 million for the University of Arizona.
Proceeds from the Series 2012 revenue bonds will finance dining facilities and student services facilities at the West Campus in Phoenix and Polytechnic Campus in Mesa.
The main campus in Tempe will get a new business school facility. ASU will also use the proceeds from a $15 million taxable Series B to buy two student housing facilities currently financed on a component unit basis.
The fixed-rate bonds will be on parity with the university’s other outstanding system revenue bonds, backed by the university’s gross revenues, which include student tuition and fees and facilities revenues.
There is no debt service reserve on the Series 2012 bonds. Following the series 2012 bonds, the university plans to sell $143 million of debt, with no issuance plans beyond that, according to Standard & Poor’s.
With 72,558 full-time students enrolled across all campuses in fall 2011, ASU is one of the nation’s largest universities. The new downtown Phoenix campus is designed for 15,000 students.
In fiscal 2011, the university generated $623 million of net tuition revenue and $8,975 of net tuition per student.
