Wisconsin Takes the Lead With $1.5B Tobacco Refunding

Wisconsin is expected to thunder into the market a week early with up to $1.5 billion of state-appropriated securities that will refund outstanding 2002 tobacco bonds and deliver a substantial amount of paper to the Midwest market.

The state's financing includes $1 billion of general fund annual appropriated bonds and $495 million of general fund annual appropriation bond anticipation notes.

The deal was originally planned for pricing on March 24 with a two-day retail order period to have begun on Friday, but state officials announced their decision last Friday to move the deal up as to avoid an overcrowded market expected next week.

Book-runner Barclays Capital will take retail orders tomorrow and Wednesday, and price the deal for institutions on Thursday. It's possible the state will sell the $1 billion portion of the deal this week, though the details were not finalized at press time. The bonds are rated AA-minus by Standard & Poor's, A-plus by Fitch Ratings, and A1 by Moody's Investors Service, while the notes are rated SP-1-plus, F1, and MIG-1, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York and the New York Transitional Finance Authority will team up to bring a healthy dose of paper, while a general obligation offering from a North Carolina issuer sized at over $500 million will command attention along with sizable offerings in California and Utah as part of an estimated $6.83 billion in total new volume expected to be priced this week, according to Thomson Reuters.

Last week, the market welcomed a revised total of $5.22 billion in competitive and negotiated offerings, the largest of which was a $795.4 million sale of general revenue bonds from the University of California Regents.

The deal, which was rated Aa1 by Moody's and AA by Standard & Poor's, contained a 2039 final maturity that was repriced with a 51/4% coupon and 5.57% yield 69 basis points cheaper than the generic triple-A GO scale in 2039 last Thursday when the deal was repriced, according to Municipal Market Data.

In the meantime, the competitive market's largest sale is expected to be a two-pronged GO offering tomorrow from Wake County, N.C., that totals $502.3 million. The deal has natural triple-A ratings from all three major credit agencies and consists of $435 million of public improvement GOs maturing serially from 2010 to 2026, and $67.3 million of GO refunding bonds maturing serially from 2010 to 2015.

The two New York offerings are both being targeted to retail investors with two-day retail order periods ahead of their official pricings for institutions.

The $445.7 million DASNY deal, which is being priced by Goldman, Sachs & Co. with an all-serial structure maturing from 2010 to 2021, will be offered to mom-and-pop investors today and tomorrow, following an institutional pricing on Wednesday.

The mental health services facilities improvement revenue bonds are rated AA-minus by Standard & Poor's and A-plus by Fitch.

The $200 million TFA deal will consist of future tax-secured senior-lien refunding bonds that are slated to be priced for institutions tomorrow, following a two-day retail order period that began last Friday and ends today.

Barclays is the senior book-running manager and the bonds were offered in a preliminary structure that consists of $180.9 million of Series A bonds maturing from 2010 to 2018, and $19.0 million of Series B bonds maturing from 2009 to 2018. The bonds are rated Aa1 by Moody's, AAA by Standard & Poor's, and AA-plus by Fitch.

Fred Yosca, managing director at BNY Capital Markets LLC, said the TFA deal will receive a much better reception than the Dormitory Authority's deal because it offers more liquidity and is of higher quality.

"The future tax-based credit is strong and commands better demand in a market where credit is king," he said. "That will get more interest than the TFA's building aid revenue bond sale that was priced two weeks ago. There's still a fair amount of those in the street and they came very cheap, but that is not even cleaning them up, which is reflective of how wide the quality spreads are."

The issue contained a 2039 final maturity that was priced on March 5 with a 53/4% coupon and 5.73% yield - 87 basis points cheaper than the generic triple-A GO scale at the time of the pricing, according to MMD.

As a state-appropriated credit, the DASNY bonds would have to offer a lot of price incentive relative to the generic, triple-A GO scale in order for them to find a home, according to Yosca.

"As a state-appropriated bond at AA-minus, it doesn't trade well in the secondary, so it's a tough sale," he said.

Overall, he said, the market should see good retail demand for the week's largest deals, but not as strong as during the upcoming heavy spring redemption season.

"There's decent retail flow, but March and April are not the best months for high net-worth customers generating cash through coupon payments and maturities," Yosca said. "They are pretty lean months."

In the Far West, King County, Wash., will sell $300 million of limited-tax GOs backed by sewer revenues today in the competitive market. The deal, which is rated Aaa by Moody's and AA-plus by Standard & Poor's, is structured to mature from 2014 to 2039.

That will be followed by a $200 million competitive sale of certificates of participation from the Orange County, Calif., Sanitation District on Wednesday. The deal - all of which is structured to mature in 2010 - is expected to be rated Aa3 by Moody's and AAA by Standard & Poor's.

In addition, the Portland, Ore., Community College District will sell $200 million of GO bonds in a deal scheduled for pricing on Thursday and structured to mature from 2010 to 2029. The bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by Standard & Poor's.

Elsewhere in the higher education sector, the Los Angeles Community College District is planning a $350 million GO sale on Wednesday in a negotiated deal senior managed by Citi and structured to mature from 2021 to 2025 with a term bond expected in 2033. The bonds are rated Aa2 by Moody's and AA by Standard & Poor's.

Rounding out the activity in the Far West, Utah's Intermountain Power Agency is expecting to sell $329.2 million of subordinate power supply revenue refunding bonds in a negotiated deal led by Morgan and rated A1 by Moody's, A-plus by Standard & Poor's, and AA-minus by Fitch. Proceeds will refund a portion of the agency's outstanding senior-lien debt.

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