MEAG Sets $245 Million Taxable, Tax-Exempt Offering

ATLANTA - The Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia is scheduled to sell $245 million of taxable and tax-exempt bonds today as it refunds debt.

The bonds will be sold through a competitive bid with Public Financial Management as the financial adviser and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe as bond counsel.

The deal comprises four pieces, including two taxable Series 2008A tranches of subordinate bonds of roughly $107 million and $57 million. The larger of the two taxable series will refund part of the taxable Project One subordinated bonds Series 2000 A and B, while the smaller series is to refund a portion of 2000 Series A general resolution project subordinated debt, according to information from Moody's Investors Service. Moody's rated the bonds A2.

The offering also includes Series 2008B tax-exempt bonds, to be sold in amounts of roughly $40 million and $43 million. The larger tax-exempt tranche will be used to refund general resolution project commercial paper, while the smaller tranche will refund commercial paper issued for project one, according to Moody's report on the issue. The maturities on the bonds range from July 1, 2008, through January 2023. The taxable bonds are being issued as refundable debt for MEAG's project one subordinated bonds, as well as taxable debt that was issued in 2000.

All the bonds are secured by a subordinate-lien pledge of revenues from take-or-pay power sales contracts between MEAG and its 49 participants.

One of the most recent deals for the electric supplier came in 2005 when it issued about $115 million of debt. It also was taxable.

Of note is the decision by officials from the authority to sell its debt competitively rather than through negotiation.

When the authority went to market in 2005, officials said they wanted to start selling bonds competitively because they were selling taxable debt and the bonds would get better prices.

MEAG officials were not available to comment by press time.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM BOND BUYER