Munis mixed as N.C. and Mass. RANs price

Action got started right away on Wednesday, as the big North Carolina bond deal priced early on Wednesday, while muni yields are unchanged to slightly lower.

Primary market
Bank of America Merrill Lynch priced the state of North Carolina’s $225.04 million of Series 2017 grant anticipation revenue vehicle refunding bonds on Wednesday.

The issue was priced to yield 0.79% with a 4% coupon in 2018 to 1.49% with a 5% coupon in 2023.The deal is rated A2 by Moody’s Investors Service, AA by S&P Global Ratings and A-plus by Fitch Ratings.

Since 2007 the Tar Heel State has sold $9.29 billion of securities, with the most issuance occurring in 2013 when it sold $1.57 billion. The state saw a low year of issuance in 2008 when it sold only $200 million.

BB-080317-MUN

With Wednesday’s sale, North Carolina has now sold more bonds this year than they have in the previous three years.

In the short-term competitive sector, Massachusetts is selling $1.5 billion of revenue anticipation notes in three separate sales. The deals consist of $500 million of Series 2017A general obligation RANs, $500 million of Series 2017B GO RANs, and $500 million of Series 2017C GO RANs.

The Series A RAN’s were won by four different firms: Goldman Sachs, Citi, Jefferies and JPMorgan. No other pricing information was immediately available.

The Series B RAN’s were won by five different firms: Citi, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Williams Capital and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. No other pricing information was immediately available.

The Series C RAN’s were won by six different firms: Citi, RBC Capital Markets, Barclays, JPMorgan, Stifel and Morgan Stanley. No other pricing information was immediately available.

All three deals are rated MIG1 by Moody’s, SP1-plus by S&P and F1-plus by Fitch.

Morgan Stanley received the verbal award on the Turnpike Authority of Kentucky’s $174.335 million of economic development road revenue refunding bonds.

The $146.92 million of 2017 Series B bonds were priced at par to yield 3.50% in 2018 and also were priced to yield from 1.56% with a 5% coupon in 2022 to 2.54% with a 5% coupon in 2028.

The $27.415 million of 2017 Series A bonds were priced to yield from 1.56% with a 2% coupon in 2022 to 3.10% with a 5% coupon in 2037. Both are rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA-minus by S&P.

In the competitive bond arena, the Ft. Mill School District No. 4 of York County, S.C., sold $119.08 million of Series 2017B GOs. Citi won the auction with a true interest cost of 2.71%. Pricing information was not immediately available. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA by S&P.

Secondary market
Top-shelf municipals were mixed on Wednesday around midday, as the yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation was as much as one basis point lower from 1.95% on Tuesday. The 30-year GO yield was steady at 2.74%, according to a read of Municipal Market Data's triple-A scale.

Treasuries were mixed on Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.35% from 1.34% on Tuesday, the 10-year Treasury yield dipped to 2.25% from 2.26% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond decreased to 2.84% from 2.87%.

The 10-year muni to Treasury ratio was calculated at 86.6% on Tuesday, compared with 85.2% on Monday, while the 30-year muni to Treasury ratio stood at 96.1% versus 94.6%, according to MMD.

MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 40,200 trades on Tuesday on volume of $9.85 billion.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Primary bond market Secondary bond market Commonwealth of Massachusetts
MORE FROM BOND BUYER