After what it deemed a successful pricing Aug. 11, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is back in the competitive market again Tuesday with another $375 million of bonds.
The commission, which is ramping up construction on a massive renovation of 240-mile-long water transmission system, elected to sell two competitive deals over three weeks, rather than one large one, to increase the chances of better market absorption, said Gary Kitahata of Kitahata & Co., a co-financial adviser to the commission along with Montague DeRose and Associates LLC.
The Aug. 11 sale, won by Barclays Capital, drew six bidders and yields that topped out at 60 points above Municipal Market Data’s triple-A scale, and Kitahata said the commission exercised its option to increase the size of the transaction by 10%, to $412 million.
“We were just happy to get the healthy reception, the six bids for a competitive sale,” he said.
The bonds are rated A1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA-minus by Standard & Poor’s.
