Municipals end mixed as NYC TFA, Massachusetts deals sell

Municipal bonds finished mixed in trading on Wednesday as issuers in New York and Massachusetts came to market with new issues.

Primary market
Goldman Sachs priced and repriced the New York City Transitional Finance Authority’s $850 million of Fiscal 2018 Series B Subseries B-1 future tax secured subordinate bonds for institutions after holding a two-day retail order period.

“During the retail order period for the tax-exempt bonds, TFA received $295 million of retail orders, of which approximately $234 million was usable,” the TFA said in a release on Wednesday. “During the institutional order period, TFA received $1.2 billion of priority orders, representing 2.0x the bonds offered for sale to institutional investors.”

The deal was repriced for institutions to yield from 1% with 3% and 5% coupons in a split 2019 maturity to 3.07% with a 4% coupon in 2038; a 2042 maturity was priced as 4s to yield 3.16% and a split 2045 maturity was priced as 3 3/8s to yield approximately 3.40% and as 5s to yield 2.91%.

During the repricing, the TFA said yields were cut from one to three basis points for maturities in 2030, 2032, 2034-2037, 2042 and 2045.

In the competitive arena, the TFA auctioned $140 million of taxable Fiscal 2018 Series B Subseries B-2 future tax secured subordinate bonds.

JPMorgan Securities won the bonds with a true interest cost of 2.909%. Pricing information was not available.

The deals are rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AAA by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

Since 2007, the TFA has sold $47.45 billion of securities, with the least issuance occurring in 2008 when it sold $1.32 billion. With Wednesday’s sales, 2017 marks the highest yearly issuance total for the authority during the past decade with $6.35 billion.

BB-101917-MUN

Massachusetts competitively sold $815.25 million of general obligation bonds in three offerings on Wednesday.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch won the $300 million of Series F consolidated loan of 2017 GOs with a TIC of 3.7813%. The issue was priced as 5s to yield from 2.64% in 2037 to 2.83% in 2046.

BAML also won the $300 million of Series E consolidated loan of 2017 GOs with a TIC of 2.8724%. The issue was priced to yield from 0.96% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 3.11% with a 3% coupon in 2036.

Jefferies won the $215.25 million of Series 2017E GO refunding bonds with a TIC of 1.8023%. The issue was priced as 5s to yield from 1.40% in 2022 to 2.03% in 2027.

The deals are rated Aa2 by Moody’s, AA by S&P and AA-plus by Fitch.

The Douglas County (Omaha) Public School District No 001, Neb., competitively sold $114.61 million of Series 2017 GOs. Citigroup won the bonds with a TIC of 3.0102%. Pricing information was not available. The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P.

In the negotiated sector, Goldman priced the Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority, Texas’ $103.51 million of Series 2017B sales and use tax refunding contractual obligations.

The issue was priced as 5s to yield from 1.20% in 2020 to 2.27% in 2029.

The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P.

Jefferies priced San Antonio, Texas’ $100 million of Series 2014B water system variable-rate junior lien revenue and refunding bonds as a remarketing.

The issue was priced as 2s to yield 1.80% in a 2044 bullet maturity with a mandatory tender date of 2022.

The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA by S&P and Fitch.

Citi received the written award on the Berks County Industrial Development Authority, Pa.’s $590.5 million of Series 2017 health system revenue bonds for the Tower Health project.

The issue was priced to yield from 1.60% with a 5% coupon in 2021 to 3.73% with as 4% coupon in 2039. A 2042 maturity was priced as 3 3/4s to yield 3.92%, a split 2047 maturity was priced as 4s to yield 3.84% and as 5s to yield 3.49% and a split 2050 maturity was priced as 4s to yield 3.90% and as 5s to yield 3.55%.

The deal is rated A3 by Moody’s and A by S&P and Fitch.

Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was unchanged from 1.93% on Tuesday, while the 30-year GO yield rose two basis points to 2.69% from 2.67%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

U.S. Treasuries were weaker on Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.56% from 1.55%, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.34% from 2.30% and yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.85% from 2.81%.

On Wednesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 82.5% compared with 84.1% on Tuesday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 94.4% versus 96.3%, according to MMD.

AP-MBIS 10-year muni at 2.272%, 30-year at 2.821%
The Associated Press-MBIS 10-year municipal benchmark 5% general obligation was at 2.272% late Wednesday, compared to the final read of 2.273% on Tuesday, according to Municipal Bond Information Services, a national consortium of municipal interdealer brokers. The AP-MBIS 30-year muni was at 2.821% versus 2.832% on Tuesday.

The AP-MBIS index is a yield curve built on market data aggregated from MBIS member firms and is updated hourly on the Bond Buyer Data Workstation.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 37,152 trades on Tuesday on volume of $9.46 billion.

Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the AP-MBIS municipal bond index, is available on the Bond Buyer Data Workstation. Click here for a brief tour of the Workstation, or contact Vanessa Kim at 212-803-8372 for more information.

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Primary bond market Secondary bond market New York City Transitional Finance Authority Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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