Investments

CommonSpirit Health will sell $2.7 billion of taxable bonds and $3.1 billion of tax-exempt debt, with BBB-plus ratings, into a supply-starved market.

The change would give airports more flexibility and local control to finance major construction projects with bonds.

The authority reports $193 million of present value savings on a $651 million refunding.

Peter Delahunt, manager of municipal trading at Raymond James, says the market is directed by retail demand, the Fed, tweets, tariff discussions and compliance. Transparency has improved and volume will remain relatively flat except for an acceleration in current refunding activity. John Hallacy hosts.

Municipal bond buyers saw some big note and bond deals hit the market on Wednesday, led by issuers in Georgia and Colorado.

Stull, a public finance advisor and banker, died Sunday. He was 55.

An oversight board approved Philadelphia’s financial plan with some caveats about revenue projections in the event of a recession.

The goal of the 2018 Chapter 11 restructuring was to establish a capital structure supported by project revenues.

This latest IRS action is one of a series of bond audits involving various government agencies in Puerto Rico.

A judge ruled the Miami-Dade County Expressway Authority can still write checks even though it was abolished in a bill signed July 3 by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Unlike the other first half rankings, top municipal underwriters counsel have done less business so far this year to what they did in the first half of 2018. Underwriters counsel totaled $104.89 billion in 1,622 transactions compared to $106.76 billion in 1,614 deals. Similarity to the bond counsel rankings, the leader remained that way while the rest of the rankings were muddled.

The top municipal bond counsel rankings were all mixed up from how they looked a year ago, with the exception of Orrick, which remained on top.

The two active municipal bond insurers are currently outpacing their output year-over-year in terms of industry penetration rate, par amount insured and number of transactions. Assured Guaranty and Build America Mutual have combined for $9.69 billion of insured volume spanning 798 transactions and 5.8% penetration rate so far in 2019, up from $9.06 billion in 625 deals and 5.5% insured rate the two achieved during the first six months of 2018.

The top municipal bond financial advisors are almost running on the same pace as they were last year in terms of par amount. So far in 2019 they have accounted for $137.44 billion throughout 3,512 transactions, slightly up from the $137.20 billion in 3,344 deals in the same time period the year before. The top three spots remained the same, with the Public Financial Management Group extending its lead.

Registered advisory firm Dale Scott & Co. will pay $25,000, and one firm and one individual each will pay $10,000 for acting as unregistered solicitors.

Warnings about the weak health and liquidity risks of Chicago’ pension system litter the funds’ 2018 financial reports.

The court ruled against an interlocutory appeal by JPMorgan and other defendants accused of collusion in pricing variable rate demand obligations.

The muni market started the week hitting the ground running as the second biggest deal of the week priced along with a few others on what was a active Tuesday.

Eli Dvorkin of Center for an Urban Future explores how to improve New York City’s public parks infrastructure, from better staffing to untapped revenue opportunities. Paul Burton hosts.

Researchers found many pension plans have already taken significant steps to assure their long-term sustainabilty.