Net revenues of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, one of the public corporations given the ability to restructure debt under a commonwealth law adopted in June, came in 6.7% ahead of budget in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.
PRASA's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. The first quarter of fiscal 2015 was July 1 to Sept. 30 of this year.
PRASA announced its results recently in preliminary figures on its web site.
Total net revenues per the master agreement of trust for the quarter were $117.8 million versus the $110.4 million that had been budgeted. These net revenues are after deducting operating expenses and adding expense capitalization.
The accumulated coverage ratio for the senior debt was 3.72 times, which is better than the budgeted 3.68 times and better than the minimum allowed of 2.5 times.
The accumulated coverage ratio for the commonwealth guaranteed debt was 1.16 times, which was better than the budgeted 1.13 times and the minimum allowed of 1.0 times.
Total debt service was $387 million, which was lower than the anticipated $391 million.
Finally, PRASA's available funds (excluding the surplus fund) was $60.6 million, better than the budgeted $51.2 million.
In late June PRASA chief executive officer Alberto Lazaro said PRASA was not considering using the restructuring law adopted by the Puerto Rico government at that time. "Our financial results and projections are healthy and sufficient to pay all projected expenses and debt service," Lazaro said.
United States Attorney's Office of Puerto Rico public affairs specialist Lymarie Llovet Ayala told the Bond Buyer that the FBI raid on PRASA headquarters on Nov. 25 was unrelated to the FBI arrest of the treasurer of the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority on Dec. 5.
