Retail buyers made a mad dash and nabbed most of New York City’s big general obligation bond offering while several large negotiated and competitive deals hit the municipal market on Tuesday.
Primary market
Ramirez & Co. held a second day of retail orders for NYC’s $850 million of Fiscal 2018 Series C and D GOs after holding the first day period on Monday.
“We had an outstanding first day retail order period, with over $800 million in orders, including oversubscription in multiple maturities,” said Devon Puglia, a spokesman for NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. “We’ve seen strong demand and strong feedback from institutions, so much so that we expect to close retail orders and move to institutional pricing earlier than expected.”
The $799.36 million of Fiscal 2018 Series C GOs were priced for retail on Tuesday to yield from 1.58% with 4% and 5% coupons in a split 2019 maturity to 2.96% with a 4% coupon in 2034.
The $50.65 million of Fiscal 2018 Series D GOs were priced for retail on Tuesday to yield from 1.25% with a 2% coupon in 2018 to 3.18% with a 3.125% coupon in 2035.
On Monday, he $799.36 million of Series C GOs were priced for retail to yield from 1.60% with 4% and 5% coupons in a split 2019 maturity to 2.98% with a 4% coupon in 2034. The $50.65 million of Series D GOs were priced for retail to yield from 1.27% with a 2% coupon in 2018 to 3.20% with a 3.125% coupon in 2035.
The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
Jefferies priced the Sales Tax Securitization Corp.’s $574.53 million of sales tax securitization bonds for retail investors.
The $174.56 million of Series 2017A tax-exempts were priced as 5s to yield from 1.83% in 2020 to 2.65% in 2030.
The $399.97 million of Series 2017B taxables were priced to yield from about 100 basis points over the comparable Treasury security in 2031 to about 75 basis points over the comparable Treasury security in 2034 and about 100 basis points over the comparable Treasury security in 2043.
The deal is rated AA by S&P and AAA by Fitch and Kroll Bond Rating Agency.
Barclays Capital priced the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, Mo.’s $317.77 million of Series 2017A wastewater system improvement and refunding revenue bonds for investors after holding a one-day retail order period.
The issue was priced to yield from 1.47% with a 3% coupon in 2019 to 2.70% with a 5% coupon in 2037. A 2042 maturity was priced as 5s to yield 2.76% and a 2047 maturity was priced as 5s to yield 2.81%.
The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s, AAA by S&P and AA-plus by Fitch.
RBC Capital Markets priced the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency’s $104.22 million of residential housing finance bonds.
The $41.15 million of Series 2017D bonds subject to the alternative minimum tax were priced at par to yield from 1.45% in 2018 to 3.10% and 3.15% in a split 2028 maturity, and 3.30% in 2030.
The $63.08 million of Series 2017E non-AMT bonds were priced at par to yield 3.30$ in 2034 and as 4s to yield 2.31% in a 2048 planned amortization class bonds with an average life of 4.81 years.
The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P.
Wells Fargo Securities received the written award on Richmond, Va.’s $118.54 million of Series 2017D GO public improvement refunding bonds.
The issue was priced to yield from 1.19% with a 4% coupon in 2018 to 2.70% with a 5% coupon in 2033.
The deal is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P and Fitch.
JPMorgan Securities received the written award of King Co., Wash.’s $149.49 million of Series 2017 sewer refunding revenue bonds.
The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA-plus by S&P.
Goldman Sachs priced the California Department of Water Resources $288.89 million of Series AX water system revenue bonds for the Central Valley project.
The issue was priced as 5s to yield from 1.19% in 2018 to 2.52% in 2035.
The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AAA by S&P.
Sources said Goldman was also offering indications of interest on the department’s $147.19 million of Series Ay taxable water system revenue bonds, with yields ranging from about 30 basis points over the comparable Treasury security in 2019 to about 90 basis points over the comparable Treasury security in 2029.
In the competitive arena, Westchester County, N.Y., sold $205.96 million of GOs in three separate offerings.
The $160.815 million of Series 2017A tax-exempt GOs were won by JPMorgan with a true interest cost of 1.92%. No pricing information was immediately available.
The $22.06 million of Series 2017C tax-exempt GOs were won by JPMorgan with a TIC of 2.45%. The $23.09 million of Series 2017B taxable GOs were won by Bank of America Merrill Lynch with a TIC of 2.78%.
All three deals are rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AAA by S&P and Fitch.
Since 2007, Westchester County has issued roughly $1.35 billion of bonds, with the most issuance occurring in 2010 when it sold $258 million of bonds. The county did not come to market in 2008.
The Board of Education of the Alpine School District, Utah, sold $113.25 million of Series 2017B GO school building bonds under the Utah School Bond Guaranty program.
Citigroup won the bonds with a TIC of 2.548%. Pricing information was not immediately available.
The deal is rated triple-A by Moody’s and Fitch.
Bond Buyer 30-day visible supply at $21.7B
The Bond Buyer's 30-day visible supply calendar decreased $1.09 billion to $21.69 billion on Tuesday. The total is comprised of $5.53 billion of competitive sales and $16.16 billion of negotiated deals.
Secondary market
The MBIS municipal non-callable 5% GO benchmark scale was stronger in midday trading.
The 10-year muni benchmark yield fell to 2.313% on Tuesday from the final read of 2.334% on Monday, according to
The MBIS benchmark index is updated hourly on the
Top-rated municipals were stronger at midday. The yield on the 10-year benchmark muni general obligation fell one to three basis points from 2.05% on Friday, while the 30-year GO yield dropped three to five basis points from 2.66%, according to a read of MMD’s triple-A scale.
U.S. Treasuries were mixed. The yield on the two-year Treasury rose to 1.83% from 1.81%, the 10-year Treasury yield gained to 2.37% from 2.38% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury decreased to 2.74% from 2.77%.
On Monday, the 10-year muni-to-Treasury ratio was calculated at 86.3% compared with 87.6% on Friday, while the 30-year muni-to-Treasury ratio stood at 96.1% versus 97.1%, according to MMD.
MSRB: Previous session's activity
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported 41,532 trades on Monday on volume of $8.40 billion.
Data appearing in this article from Municipal Bond Information Services, including the MBIS municipal bond index, is available on The Bond Buyer Data Workstation.
