Munis end weaker as new deals price; Illinois GO bond deal looms large

Municipal bonds finished weaker on Tuesday as new deals from Florida and New York priced ahead of Illinois' $4.5 billion sale slated for Wednesday.

Primary market
Goldman Sachs priced and repriced Gainesville, Fla.’s $415.92 million of Series 2017A utility system revenue bonds.

The issue was repriced to yield from 1.00% with a 5% coupon in 2018 to 3.24% with a 4% coupon in 2040.

The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-minus by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

Since 2007, the city has issued about $948 million of debt, excluding this week’s sale. Prior to this week, the most issuance occurred in 2008 when the city sold $195 million of debt. The city didn't come to market in 2011, 2013, 2015 or 2016.

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The Sunshine State was also represented in the competitive arena on Tuesday, where Wells Fargo Securities won the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s $75.13 million of Series 2017A Florida Forever revenue refunding bonds with a true interest cost of 1.88%.The deal is rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA-minus by S&P and Fitch.

Elsewhere in the negotiated sector, Jefferies priced and repriced Wisconsin’s $382.65 million of general obligation refunding bonds of 2017, Series 2.

The issue was repriced as 5s to yield from 1.18% in 2020 to 2.16% in 2028.

The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s, AA by S&P, and AA-plus by Fitch and Kroll Bond Ratings Agency.

Traders said demand was good for Tuesday’s issues, which were repriced to lower yields on the Gainesville and Wisconsin deals.

One New York trader said that as the year winds down, supply demand remained strong despite the big Illinois deal on tap for Wednesday.

“There was good demand for [Tuesday’s] deals,” the trader said.

RBC Capital Markets priced the Utility Debt Securitization Authority of New York’s $369.47 million of Series 2017 restructuring bonds, due June 15 and Dec. 15.

The deal was priced as 5s to yield from 1.13% and 1.17% in a split 2022 maturity to 2.76% in 2041.

The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch.

Ramirez priced the New York State Housing Finance Agency’s $115.22 million of Series 2017K affordable housing climate bond certified green bonds.

The issue was priced at par to yield from 1.40%, 1.50%, 1.50%, 1.50% and 1.50% in a quintuple-split 2021 maturity to 2.60% in 2028 and to yield 3% in 2032, 3.30% in 2037, 3.50% in 2042, 3.60% in 2047 and 3.65% in 2050.

The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s.

Morgan Stanley priced the Philadelphia Hospitals and Higher Education Facilities Authority’s $236.94 million of hospital revenue bonds for the Temple University Health System Obligated Group.

The issue was priced as 5s to yield from 1.91% in 2019 to 3.71% in 2034.

The deal is rated Ba1 by Moody’s, BBB-minus by S&P and BB-plus by Fitch.

On Wednesday, Barclays Capital is set to price the marquee deal of the week -- Illinois’ $4.5 billion Series of November 2017D general obligation bonds.

The deal is rated Baa3 by Moody’s, BBB-minus by S&P and BBB by Fitch. Moody’s and Fitch have negative outlooks on the state’s credit while S&P maintains a stable outlook.

On Tuesday, the Illinois spread above the MMD triple-A scale was calculated at 115 basis points in 2020 and 170 basis points in 2028.

Secondary market
The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation rose one basis point to 1.96% from 1.95% on Monday, while the 30-year GO yield increased three basis points to 2.77% from 2.74%, according to the final read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

U.S. Treasuries were weaker on Tuesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.58% from 1.57% on Monday, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.41% from 2.38% and yield on the 30-year Treasury bond increased to 2.93% from 2.89%.

On Tuesday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 81.6% compared with 82.1% on Monday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 94.9% versus 94.9%, according to MMD.

AP-MBIS 10-year muni at 2.281%, 30-year at 2.857%
The Associated Press-MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale reflected weakness on Tuesday.

The 10-year muni benchmark yield increased 0.002 to 2.281% in late trading, compared to the final read of 2.279% on Monday, according to Municipal Bond Information Services, a national consortium of municipal interdealer brokers. The AP-MBIS 30-year benchmark muni yield gained 0.009 to 2.857% from 2.848% on Monday.

The AP-MBIS benchmark 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 33,597 trades on Monday on volume of $7.41 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 212-803-8474 for more information.

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