The $150 million refunding portion of Connecticut’s $700 million general obligation bond sale is expected to generate $21.5 million in budget savings over eight years, said Treasurer Denise Nappier.
Nappier called the three-day sale earlier this month “a win-win for the citizens of our state.”
Connecticut, she said, took advantage of low interest rates and strong investor demand. The overall interest cost was 3.16%. The bond sale included $550 million of new-money bonds, of which $335.7 million will finance local school construction projects, $54.6 million will go to community technical colleges, and $30 million to the state’s local capital improvement fund, a grant program for municipalities.
According to Nappier, the sale attracted $121 million in orders from individual investors during a retail period that she extended by one day due to the snowstorm and power outages that affected the state.
That extension netted $21 million in additional retail sales, she said, while institutional investors placed orders totaling more than $728 million for the bonds.
Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings rated the bonds AA, while Moody’s Investors Service rated them Aa2.
