New York’s Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority got a rating boost from Standard & Poor’s for its Series 2002F general revenue variable-rate bonds.
S&P on Oct. 21 raised its long-term rating on the bonds to AAA/A-1 from AA-minus/A-1.
S&P also assigned its AA-minus underlying rating to the bonds and affirmed its AA-minus and A-plus ratings on the authority's general revenue bonds and subordinate revenue bonds outstanding.
The outlook is stable.
TBTA, now called MTA Bridges and Tunnels, is a unit of New York’s metropolitan Transportation Authority. It operates the Robert F. Kennedy, Throgs Neck, Verrazano-Narrows, Bronx-Whitestone, Henry Hudson, Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial, and Cross Bay Veterans Memorial bridges and the Hugh L. Carey and Queens Midtown tunnels, all within New York City.
“The upgrade reflects our assessment of the change in structure to a direct-pay letter of credit from an uninsured liquidity structure,” S&P said in a statement. “We now base the rating's long-term and short-term components on the [letter of credit] from Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen Girozentrale and our application of the low correlation joint criteria is based on our AA-minus spur on the authority.
“Previously, we based the rating's long-term component on that of the obligor and the short-term component on a liquidity facility from Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen.”
S&P said its ratings reflect TBTA's strong historical financial performance and service essentiality, and its expectation that the authority will maintain combined debt service coverage at levels adequate for the rating.
