The state of Louisiana defied naysayers and sold $335 million of municipal bonds on Wednesday.
The state Bond Commission on Wednesday morning approved the sale of the various purpose general obligation refunding bonds. The apparent winner was Wells Fargo Securities with a true interest cost of 3.295654%. There were six registered bidders for the bonds, the Bond Commission said.
The issue was rated Aa2 by Moody's Investors Service and AA by Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.
"Despite the circumstances, the sale went very well," said State Treasurer John Kennedy. "We were about 25 basis points higher than our last sales."
Pricing information was not immediately available.
The sale took place successfully despite questions surrounding the state's projected $1.6 billion deficit for fiscal 2016.
Almost two pages of the preliminary official statement were dedicated to describing the state's projected $1.6 billion deficit for fiscal 2016 and the measures being proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and Legislature to close the gap.
