Healthcare industry

CHICAGO - Denver-based investment banking firm George K. Baum & Co. has hired prominent Midwest health care banker Tom Laird to open a Minneapolis office and launch a new national health care business.

Catholic Health East Wednesday will convert $171.8 million of variable-rate bonds based on the London Interbank Offered Rate into fixed-rate mode in a multi-state transaction, but $74 million of similar bonds issued through a New Jersey conduit are absent from the offering.

DALLAS - The eight states of the Southwest region have already put their $30 billion share of the federal stimulus in motion, launching transportation projects, patching holes in their budgets, and restoring programs that would otherwise go begging.

The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York gave final approval for $375 million of tax-exempt bonds for Cornell University and preliminary approval for up to $30 million of tax-exempt bonds for a children’s hospital.

CHICAGO - Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar Inc.'s recent decision to trim 20% of its global workforce of 110,000 will put added strain and pressure on the budgets and credits of its hometown city and other nearby governmental units, Moody's Investors Service writes in a new commentary.

The West Virginia Hospital Finance Authority is expected to sell $68 million of variable-rate revenue bonds tomorrow on behalf of the West Virginia United Health System Obligated Group.

The WakeMed health care system is expected to sell $75 million in variable-rate bonds today in the second part of a $175 million debt sale started in January.

Gov. Mike Beebe last week signed a bill increasing in Arkansas’ cigarette tax that will generate $86 million a year for health care, including a statewide trauma system for emergency rooms and an expansion of health insurance for children.

The University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh will sell long-term bonds over the next two weeks to refinance variable-rate debt and fund various projects.

DALLAS - Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed a budget-balancing bill Tuesday, avoiding a shutdown of state government over a dispute with Republican leaders in the Legislature.

The Saint Raphael Obligated Group has defaulted on certain covenants attached to $59.9 million of tax-exempt bonds issued in 2004 on its behalf by the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority, according to a material event notice.

Standard & Poor’s last week downgraded North Country Health Services’ debt to BBB-plus from A due to poor operating results. The action affects $13.3 million of debt sold in 2006 through the city of Bemidji and $37 million of debt sold in 2002.

CHICAGO - St. Louis-based Ascension Health today will remarket $570 million of weekly variable-rate bonds as fixed-rate debt in the first of three planned mode conversions over the next month.

The University of Minnesota’s plans for a new $275 million children’s hospital received a boost last week with the announcement of a $50 million gift.

CHICAGO - Wisconsin-based Froedtert & Community Health closes today on its $189 million refunding of variable-rate revenue bonds that shed the old debt's insurance from downgraded Ambac Assurance Corp. in favor of a letter of credit from U.S. Bank NA.

A bankruptcy judge last week approved the use of state grant money to defease $21.6 million of outstanding bonds issued by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York on behalf of bankrupt Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn. The authority expects to defease the bonds on Aug. 1.

New Jersey's largest health care entity, Saint Barnabas Health Care System, is in technical default on $768 million of debt issued through the New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority due to shrinking liquidity.

Standard & Poor’s Friday revised the outlook on the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to stable from negative and affirmed its BBB rating on the credit.

WASHINGTON - Growing mark-to-market liabilities for interest rate swaps are posing credit risks that could result in downgrades for some not-for-profit hospitals, higher education institutions, and other nonprofit borrowers, Moody's Investors Service warned in a report issued yesterday.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Municipal bond issuance in the Southeast last year took the largest tumble of any region in the country. Volume fell in all four quarters of 2008 as the credit crunch worsened and - as one financial adviser put it - the rules kept changing.