CHICAGO — The board of Cook County, Ill., Wednesday gave final approval to a new finance team as the county prepares to come to market with a pair of refundings over the next few months.
It will be the first bond team assembled since county chief financial officer Ivan Samstein sent out a request for qualifications in spring 2013.
Cook, the second largest county in the U.S., may come to market as soon as next week with the first transaction, $75 million of refunding general obligations.
"We looked at many factors" in choosing the firms, Samstein said. "We looked at the ideas firms brought to us and we tried to make sure we awarded firms for bringing us value-added ideas," he said. "As always, we were conscious of diverse and local firms. It's a diverse syndicate with MBE participation."
Mesirow Financial Inc. is the senior manager on the deal. Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC is co-senior. Co-managers are Cabrera Capital Markets LLC, KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., and RBC Capital Markets LLC.
Acacia Financial Group Inc. and Speer Financial Inc. are financial advisors. Bond counsel is Chapman and Cutler LLP and Hardwick Law Firm LLC.
Underwriters counsel is Quarles & Brady LLP and Gonzalez, Saggio and Harlan LLC. Pension disclosure counsel is Ungaretti & Harris LLP.
Cook expects to achieve net present value savings of around $12 million in the refunding, Samstein said.
The county in 2014 expects to refund another $130 million of GO bonds.
Loop Capital Markets LLC is the senior underwriter on the deal. BMO Capital Markets GKST Inc. is the co-senior manager. Co-managers are Barclays Capital Inc., George K. Baum & Company, PNC Capital Markets, Robert W. Baird & Co., and Wells Fargo Securities.
A.C. Advisory Inc., the county's long-time advisor, and Columbia Capital Management LLC are financial advisors.
Bond counsel is Chapman and Cutler LLP and Charity & Associates PC. Underwriters counsel is Ice Miller LLP and Pugh, Jones & Johnson, PC. Ungaretti & Harris LLP are pension disclosure counsel also for this deal.
Altogether, Cook qualified 46 underwriters, 31 law firms, and seven financial advisors as part of the county's pool to tap over the next three years.
Ahead of the deals, all three ratings agencies affirmed their ratings on the county.
Standard & Poor's rates it AA with a stable outlook. Moody's Investors Service rates it A1 with a negative outlook, and Fitch Rates it AA-minus with a negative outlook.
Cook has $3.5 billion of outstanding debt.
