A $1.1 billion Texas Transportation Commission offering will lead the activity in the primary market this week as volume is forecast to decline.
Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer estimated that $5.31 billion in long term new issuance is headed to market this week, compared with the revised $8.38 billion that actually arrived last week as reported by Thomson Reuters. That total was higher than the $7.81 billion originally forecast, in part because a pair of $2 billion dollar deals in New York and California were increased in size on repricing.
This week's billion-dollar Texas offering of highway improvement general obligation bonds will be priced by JPMorgan Securities on Thursday with a structure of serial bonds maturing from 2015 to 2036 and term bonds in 2039 and 2044.
The bonds are rated triple-A by Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings.
Last week's pumped up calendar met with high demand from investors - especially a $2 billion offering from the New York City Sales Tax Asset Receivable Corp. which was four times oversubscribed and strengthened in secondary trading on Thursday, with some the 5% coupons of 2024 and 2029 each falling 14 basis points from their original yield offering to 2.18% and 2.59%, respectively.
The bonds came right on top of Thursday's triple-A GO scale in 2024 and 2029 which yielded 2.18% and 2.56%, respectively, according to Municipal Market Data.
In other activity this week, Connecticut will offer $730 million of new money and refunding special tax obligation bonds on Tuesday in a negotiated deal priced by Raymond James & Associates.
Structured as serials maturing from 2015 to 2034, the bonds are rated Aa3 by Moody's and AA by both Standard & Poor's and Fitch and will finance transportation infrastructure projects.
Elsewhere, the California Department of Water Resources will issue $625 million of water system revenue bonds, while Alachua County, Fla., will issue $250 million of health facilities revenue bonds.
The water deal will priced by Morgan Stanley & Co. on Tuesday with a serial structure maturing from 2018 to 2032 and those bonds are rated Aa1 by Moody's and AAA by Standard & Poor's.
The Florida health deal will be priced by Bank of America Merrill Lynch & Co. on Wednesday and will finance improvements at the Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville, Fla.
Volume remains scarce this week in the competitive market, where the only deal over $100 million is a three-pronged Ohio general obligation offering slated for Tuesday. The deal is rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA-plus by Standard & Poor's and Fitch and consists of three series -- $150 million of infrastructure improvement GO bonds; $12 million of coal development GO bonds; and $35 million of natural resources GO bonds.
