Angelo Wears Credit Halo

Despite modest growth, the West Texas city of San Angelo carries strong ratings on $28 million of general obligation refunding bonds expected to be priced this week.

Citing the city’s stable economy and status as a regional hub, Fitch Ratings conferred its AA-plus rating with a stable outlook. 

Standard & Poor’s rated the deal AA with a stable outlook that applies to all of the city’s GO debt. 

Moody’s Investors Service had not rated the deal as of last week but assigned an Aa3 to a 2009 deal.

The negotiated deal is led by Morgan Keegan & Co. with Crews & Associates Inc., Edward Jones and RBC Capital Markets as co-managers. 

Specialized Public Finance Inc. serves as financial adviser, with McCall Parkhurst & Horton as bond counsel.

The bonds mature serially from 2012 through 2023 and are callable in 2021.

San Angelo, a city of about 92,000, will carry debt of about $103 million after this issue, according to the preliminary official statement.

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