LOS ANGELES - Triple-A rated Alaska is planning to sell $170 million of general obligation bond anticipation notes in a competitive offering on Tuesday.
Proceeds will go toward refinancing $142.6 million of the state's GO BANs that were issued last year to fund design and construction costs of transportation projects. The remaining $27.4 million will also go toward funding transportation projects throughout the state.
The projects are part of a transportation bonding program that voters approved in November 2012.
Some of the projects that are funded by the State's Transportation Project Fund include a Port of Anchorage expansion, road construction on Glenn Highway, bridge repairs and construction on New Seward Highway, and upgrades to the Haines Borough Boat Harbor.
The new BANs will mature on March 23, 2015.
K&L Gates LLP is bond counsel and Acacia Financial Group, Inc. is financial advisor.
Moody's Investors Service assigned its top short-term rating of MIG 1 to the new BANs, citing the state's strong ability to issue GO bonds, including those that will provide for note repayment.
"The ease with which the state should be able to execute a long-term financing to redeem these notes is supported both by Alaska's long-term general obligation rating and the state's long record of successful bond sales," analysts said in the credit report.
Moody's rates the state's outstanding GO bonds at Aaa, with a stable outlook.
Standard & Poor's assigned the notes its SP-1-plus rating, and affirmed its AAA rating on the state's GO bonds.
"In accordance with our criteria for rating BANs, we have assigned a "low" market risk profile to Alaska," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Gabriel Petek. "Across the board, Alaska scores favorably in our assessment of its market risk. This includes explicit BAN refunding authority, no debt that is sensitive to market confidence exposure, and good information availability."
Fitch Ratings, which also rates Alaska's GO bonds at AAA, gave its F1-plus rating to the new BANs, also citing the state's ability of market access.
