California Sets $2.7 Billion Spring GO Sale

TAHOMA, Calif. – California announced Thursday it will sell $2.73 billion of general obligation bonds in March.

Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s office said the sale will be broken into $2.2 billion of tax-exempt debt, $310 million of mostly taxable refunding bonds, and $228 million of remarketed, taxable Build America Bonds.

The deal will have a two-day retail order period from March 12 to 13, and the tax-exempt debt will be priced on March 14.

The treasurer’s office did not say how much of the tax-exempt deal will be refinancing.

The joint lead underwriters are JPMorgan Securities and Goldman Sachs & Co.

It’s the first California GO deal since Standard & Poor’s upgraded its rating one notch to A Jan. 31. Moody’s Investors Service rates the credit A1, and Fitch Ratings A-minus.

California, typically the largest issuers in the country over the last decade, has eased its debt issuance over the last two years amid a push by Gov. Jerry Brown to rein in borrowing and force agencies to use unspent bond proceeds.

Last spring, the state sold a combined $3.2 billion of GO bonds through two deals after taking a spring hiatus in 2011.

Retail investors bought the majority of the state’s $1.75 billion GO bonds sold in September, of which $1 billion was new money. The state paid an all-time interest rate of 3.72% on 30-year bonds.

California sold $1.89 billion of new-money voter-approved general obligation bonds in 2012, according to the treasurer’s office.

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