ALAMEDA, Calif. — California prepares to price its annual revenue anticipation note this month with better ratings in hand than it had for its 2010 Ran sale.
Standard & Poor’s Thursday gave the deal an SP-1-plus short-term rating, up from SP-1 in 2010, and Fitch Ratings followed Friday morning with an F1 rating, up from the F2 it assigned California when it sold $10 billion of Rans in November 2010.
At the same time, Fitch affirmed the A-minus long-term rating and stable outlook on California general obligation bonds.
Moody’s Investors Service rates the 2011 Ran deal MIG-1, as it did in 2010.
The $5.4 billion of notes are slated to price Sept. 15. Wells Fargo Securities and Barclays Capital are joint senior managers.
“These top ratings reflect the strength of the [fiscal year] 2011-12 budget,” Treasurer Bill Lockyer said in a statement. “Particularly important from an investor standpoint are the spending cuts that will be triggered automatically if revenues fall short of projections.”
