Barclays Capital, RBC Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley will be lead managers for Puerto Rico's upcoming general obligation bond issue, the commonwealth said in an announcement Tuesday.
Barclays will act as "lead left" book-running manager.
The Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico said it expects to issue the GOs in the "near term" to refinance outstanding obligations and address the government's liquidity needs. Sources close to the island's financing efforts confirmed to The Bond Buyer that the commonwealth plans to issue before the end of the month.
"We have completed significant measures in the past month to improve our fiscal health and are ready to access the market with a new issuance of GO bonds," David Chafey, chairman of the GDB, said in the press release.
A two-notch downgrade by Moody's Investors Service brought Puerto Rico's general obligation rating to speculative-grade Ba2 from Baa3 Friday. The move by Moody's followed a downgrade by Standard & Poor's last Tuesday that knocked the island's GOs one level to BB-plus from BBB-minus.
While some fund managers will be restricted from buying the now-speculative grade Puerto Rico paper, the debt issue may still see strong demand among mutual funds, according to a
