Higher education bonds

CHICAGO - Ohio State University plans to enter the market Monday with the first of two bond issues totaling roughly $350 million that will kick off a $1.5 billion, six-year capital plan.

DALLAS - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal went to Washington, D.C., to meet with the state's congressional delegation on Tuesday to advance the case for millions of federal dollars in reimbursement for its expenses and losses related to Hurricane Gustav.

Renovations to Dallas’ Cotton Bowl stadium, financed in part with $30 million of proceeds from city bonds approved by voters in November 2006, brings the capacity of the facility in Fair Park to 92,200. The $57 million project, aided by $30 million from the State Fair of Texas, makes the venerable stadium the ninth-largest athletic facility in the country.

Moody’s Investors Service assigned a first time rating of A2 to Marquette University’s debt ahead of its $110 million debt issue next month.

DALLAS - The University of Colorado Board of Regents will finance significant expansion of its Front Range campuses with proceeds from a $142.6 million revenue bond issue this week.

A $1.3 billion North Carolina education financing will command the spotlight in the primary market this week as the municipal market is expected to see an estimated $6 billion in competitive and negotiated new-issue volume, compared with last week's revised $4.2 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

The University of Massachusetts last week moved forward with a $2.56 billion, five-year plan that will help finance capital projects at five different campuses and include $1.45 billion of borrowing.

Princeton University on Wednesday will take bids for $250 million of natural triple-A rated debt to help pay for new academic buildings and maintenance projects. The New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority will issue the debt on behalf of the university.

WASHINGTON - Georgetown University, one of the first issuers to be hit by a failed auction as the auction-rate securities market was beginning to collapse earlier this year, is joining the throngs of issuers exiting the devastated market when it begins to convert about $550 million of its ARS in the coming weeks.

CHICAGO - On the heels of the sale of a financially troubled borrower to a for-profit buyer, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is dipping into its reserves and taking out a short-term bank loan in order to redeem $5.7 million in tax-exempt bonds issued on behalf of the borrower.

Massachusetts officials are working on what could be the largest fixed-rate student loan bond deal this year, a $400 million transaction to help finance private undergraduate and graduate loans for the upcoming school year.

A student housing organization does not qualify for tax-exempt status and cannot finance projects with tax-exempt bonds because it fails to meet several charitable criteria, the Internal Revenue Service concluded in a private-letter ruling released last week.

Standard & Poor’s last week said Iowa State University’s credit would not suffer due to the devastating floods that hit the Midwest in June even as the university has reported preliminary costs of $232 million associated with flood-related repairs.

DALLAS - Plans to transform fast-growing Williamson County, Tex., into a hub of medical research and training gained momentum yesterday as Texas Tech University agreed to join a new education center near Taylor.

The recent article ("Three Large Lenders Out of FFEL," Aug. 13) paints an incomplete picture of the department's loan purchase programs and the current student loan market overall.

DALLAS -Shreveport, La., will refund variable-rate bonds issued in 2000 to finance the expansion of a football stadium with next week's negotiated sale of $35 million of fixed-rate debt.

Massachusetts officials are moving closer to selling a $400 million new-money, student loan bond sale, with hopes that the deal will gain as much investor interest as a recent New Jersey higher education loan transaction.

CHICAGO - Indiana would privatize its state lottery or issue bonds backed by future lottery growth to fund a new college scholarship fund under a proposal set forth this week by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

DALLAS — As it prepares to bring a two-tranche, $35.9 million deal to the competitive market Monday, College Station received an upgrade of its underlying credit to AA from AA-minus by Standard & Poor’s.

WASHINGTON - Three of the largest nonprofit student loan lenders have temporarily withdrawn from lending in the Federal Family Education Loan program despite a high-profile plan by the Department of Education designed to assist non-bank lenders in financing student loans.