BondLink's client issuers have surpassed $500 billion in bond sales while working with the municipal bond platform, partly as a result of its recent growth in the transportation sector, with the addition of San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit as a client.
Other transportation clients include: The Bay Area Transportation Authority, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Sound Transit in the Seattle region, Utah Transit Authority and the Chicago Transit Authority.
"I am really proud of the partnerships we have established in that sector," said Colin MacNaught, chief executive officer and co-founder of BondLink.
Working with clients on $500 billion in bond sales is a "huge milestone for us," MacNaught said. "It's a real testament to our software and issuers wanting greater transparency."
MacNaught
The site formally launched in November 2016, with the District of Columbia as its first client.
BondLink launched BART's platform just ahead of it
BART's financial advisor, Bryant Jenkins, co-owner of Sperry Capital, the issuer and BondLink all worked together, because "we all agree on the value of transparency," MacNaught said.
Part of the value for issuers is that it puts all the financial documents in one portal, so as Jenkins said, investors don't have to "google about the internet," trying to find information on different websites.
Behind the scenes, BART's finance team will also benefit from internal tools, like an automated debt profile, helping them stay organized and manage outstanding bonds more efficiently, MacNaught said.
"This new platform is a big step forward in how we connect and build trust with the investment community," said Joseph Beach, chief financial officer of BART.
"It allows us to better highlight the strength of our financial stability strategies and showcase the capital investments we're making across the system, which are critical to enhancing the reliability of our system for our riders," Beach said.
By making more information available to investors in one spot, it also provides greater access to non-traditional retail investors, who don't have the large research teams that institutional investors do — and makes it easier for issuers to stand out in a crowded field, MacNaught said.
"The market is way up this year," MacNaught said. "It's the second year issuance will be above $500 billion. It will probably go above $550 billion."
There are 250 bond sales a week, 50,000 issuers and 1 million CUSIPs outstanding, many are rated AA or AAA, MacNaught said. "How do issuers stand out in that crowded field seeking investors?" he asked.
"Transparency is the right thing to do, but also as an issuer, the question arises: how do you present yourself best to potential investors?" he said. "I think you do that by being more transparent and more accessible."
BondLink offers a fully automated debt database that doesn't require curation, MacNaught said.
"Once we have the client's database, we can show them every penny they owe until the bonds are rolled off," he said. "They can add leases, side letter agreements and pensions on top of their debt database. That is a big lift for issuers; with one click they can see everything outstanding."
It's also set up, so they can download and schedule EMMA filings, he said.
BondLink has clients in all muni categories. It started out working with state and local governments and currently works with 40 state governments, MacNaught said.
In addition to BART, it also just added New York City, the Port of Portland, Oregon, and the city of Riverside, California, as clients.
"We are adding several new issuers every month and rolling out new tools," he said.
