The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is slated to sell $149 million of revenue bonds later this week to refund old debt.
The bonds, rated A-plus by Standard & Poor's, A3 by Moody's Investors Service and A by Fitch Ratings, are expected to price on Thursday. The NJTA, which owns and operates the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, is planning the sale to refund all or a portion of its outstanding series 2004B Bonds. The agency has about $10.6 billion in debt outstanding, according to S&P.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. is the lead underwriter with a syndicate that includes PNC Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities. The financial advisor is First Southwest with Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A. as bond counsel.
Moody's said a consistent demand for the NJTA's toll roads is a credit asset.
"The NJTA benefits from a very strong market position with revenues from the two major highway arteries through the State of New Jersey, which are parts of critical transportation routes for the Eastern Seaboard and the New York City metropolitan area," Moody's analysts said.
Fitch noted that that the NJTA has had "prudent operating cost management" to deliver $7 billion in capital improvements through 2018. The authority should be well positioned for its plan to raise an additional $1.3 billion of debt over the next three years due to recent toll increases, according to Fitch.
