Transcript:
Announcer (
Ladies and gentlemen, let's now welcome to the stage publisher of the Bond Buyer, Michael Ballinger.
Michael Ballinger (
Good afternoon. I'm Mike Ballinger, publisher of Bond Buyers. My pleasure to welcome you to our 27th annual Texas Public Finance Conference. We have more than 430 registered attendees. We are particularly pleased. We have over a hundred issuers in attendance. This year's Texas Public Finance Conference will again address key issues and trends that are impacting the municipal and Texas Bond markets. We're particularly pleased, have such an outstanding line of keynote speakers including Glenn Hager, Texas Comptroller, Mark Zandi, Moody's Analytic Chief Economist, and Jay Propes, partner of Mercury Public Affairs. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors and speakers for the conference, especially our conference co-chairs, Noe Hinojosa, chairman and President and CEO of Estrada, Hinojosa and Company, and Janice Hofferber, the new head of public finance at Moody's Investor Service. Also want to thank several Bond Buyer employees who have done an outstanding job in this conference. Alma Subasic, who was the program manager responsible for developing this excellent agenda along with our conference co-chairs, as well as Esther Thornton, Megan O'Carroll, and Dan who have handled all the marketing and logistics for this conference. Please join me in a round of applause for the reference. The Bombay editorial staff is also well represented at this conference led by editor in Chief Mike Scarelli and joined by Rick Saski and Karen Pirog. Urge you to reach out to our editorial and conference staff during the course of the conference. Kickoff the conference. My pleasure. To introduce our conference co-chairs, Noe Hinojosa is chairman and president and CEO of Estrada Hinojosa Company. Since founding Estrada Hinojosa in 1992, Noe's been responsible for managing the firm's transaction and growth of the firm. In the past two years alone, the firm has participated in 470 transactions totalling 48 billion as a founding partner and CEO. He's led the firm in 22 years of consecutive profits. Noe has a strong reputation for creative solutions to complex challenges in the public finance arena. He has a broad experience as a financial advisor to many diverse types of political subdivisions, municipalities, as well as direct involvement with the firm's missile bond underwriting. Janice Hofferber is the head of public finance at Moody's Investor Service overseeing ratings and research for over 12,000 state and local government hospitals, higher education institutions, charter schools, and other tax exempt Obligor's. Prior to this role, she was managing director in the North American corporate finance group leading analytical teams covering over 500 investment grade and high yielding issuers since 2013. In addition, Janice is a leader in the number of company wide initiatives including spearheading Moody's efforts to deliver globally consistent and high quality market and customer engagements. Janice has extensive experience working in the financial services industry. She rejoined Moody's in 2006 as a lead analyst for the US consumer products and tobacco sectors, as well as rating committee chairperson for multiple industry teams. She started Moody as a senior analyst in 1995 and also brings her wealth of knowledge from other senior positions held for over 20 years. She worked in investment banking, fixed income and equity analytic sectors. Please join me in a warm welcome for Noe and Janice to kickoff the conference.
Janice Hofferber (
Well, welcome to Bond Buyer Texas. So excited to be here and thank you Mike for that very warm welcome. Although I feel very old listening to you talk about my background. But hello everyone. My name is Janice Hofferber. I'm Managing Director and head of US Public Finance at Moody's. As you may have guessed, this is my first Bond Buyer Texas and I'm honored to be a part of it and honored to be here to meet all of you. I'm hoping over the next few days I get to see and talk to as many of you as I possibly can. First, I want to thank Mike and everyone from the Bond Buyer for everything they've done to get this event off the ground for yet another year. I also want to acknowledge and thank my co-chair Noe Hinojosa as well as the entire Estrada Hinojosa and company for all that they've done to contribute to this event. So while I am the newest member of the Moody's Public Finance team, Moody's has a very, very long history in this great state of Texas. Our first rating on the state dates back to the early 1960s, and yes, it was AAA and we have invested considerably in our franchise in our analytical franchise here in Texas. We currently have well over a thousand issuers rated in the public finance group in Texas. We have meaningfully added to our analytical staff here. We have an office in Dallas and we've had that office for over 20 years. It's been led by a number of terrific leaders including Gera McGuire, who's here today, and just recently we added a managing director, Alejandro Oliva, who's also here today, and I'm hoping you'll get a chance to meet them as well as the number of individuals from the Dallas office that are here, as well as some of our analysts that have come from other parts of the country to contribute to the many panels that are being offered. We will continue to invest in this very important and growing market and I'm really happy to be able to meet a number of you that are making that possible. We have a really great agenda for the rest of the week and I know Noe's going to spend a little bit more time going through some of the details, but I think what you're going to see is a number of very informative panels on housing, transportation, education, ESG, and of course what good conference would we have if we didn't have a number of very special keynote speakers. I'll give a personal plug from Mark Zandi who works with us at Mo Moody's Analytics. You may have heard him speak in the past, but he's not only entertaining but incredibly knowledgeable about the US economy and of course Glenn Hegar tomorrow I think is going to be another highlight speaking on the current state of this great state of Texas. So I'll turn it over to Noe for some opening comments, but welcome and sit back and enjoy. Thank you.
Noe Hinojosa (
Well, Janice, welcome to Texas. Thank you and kind of funny, but we went out of water just as soon as we started. I met her, what, a week ago maybe at our office.
Janice Hofferber (
Yes, I barged into your office, didn't I?
Noe Hinojosa (
Yeah, that's right. Moody likes to do those things on some of us. Nothing personal Jack in Dallas, but they do. But anyway, having said all that, she came down and gave her a hug and I said, oh my God, you can't do that in New York. You're in Texas. And that's what this is about. It's about learning what's going on in Texas and how, basically how humble and how hardworking we are and how vibrant this state has been. So I want to thank Mike Ballinger and his team, including Alma Subasic, I think she's somewhere around to putting up with all of us and putting all these panels together and certainly the co-sponsor Moody's. I know that this is a pretty heavy nickel for us, so I'm sure it's a heavy nickel for you guys. But anyway, the title of the conference is Building a Bright Future in the Lone Star State. I would've only continued to build. Have you been in this industry for over 35 years? I can tell you we were part of building Texas and then and to continue building it is nothing but short of exciting. I mean, we live in a Texas that just doesn't stop. I mean, my daughter went to California to study and came back to Texas. My son was in South Carolina, came back to Texas. Nobody wants to leave Texas. So that's a good Moody's. What do they call it? Rudy? What do they call it? Metrics?
Janice Hofferber (
Even my daughter moved here.
Noe Hinojosa (
Oh, there you have it. See? So in any event, that's one thing that came out in The Economist. I don't know if some of you read The Economist, but apparently people from California and New York tend to move out and we don't mind when they come to Texas, but Texans don't move out and if they do move out, they come back in. And I think that's the story at this conference. Hopefully in the next two and a half days you get to pick some of that. Just in the last decade alone, the DFW of Metroplex, which is our home, grew at the fastest space of any other in the US and tripled over the same period. The national rate, according to the article that I just mentioned earlier, and I see Chris said back there, and Chris, I know you're CFO at DFT Airport and second busiest airport and continued to work on that terminal F. I think. So it's bankers. You didn't hear that? That's that. I can for you to go make a call on Chris. But that's one of the things that we've been privileged and humbled to see some of our friends do, so many of our colleagues stay with this project year after year after year. And I think the story of the FL Lio Metroplex and the airport thanks to the airport is part of that growth in Texas. Despite having seen Texas municipal issuance drop by 10% last year compared to 21, and nationally from almost 20% in the US markets drop to 18%. The US stocks dropped eight 18%. Investment grade bonds dropped. 13% never seen. I think on record out there, the Texas E D P managed to exceed 2 trillion in 22, making a second course to California. And if you were to be a country, you'd be the ninth largest in the world. Rick, I think back in 1836, this was a republic, wasn't it? So you could just figure out the spirit of Texans that we try to be very much on the go all the time. 2022, some of us were in management, was certainly a test environment with interest rates rising, dealing with inverted yield curves, inflation, supply chain regulation. And now if we're not careful, just a few blocks north of here, you got the legislature that is doing some creative things. So for some of you who've been in this business for a long time, and some of you who are just new, you need to get out there and stand proud of this industry because without it, I don't think we could be making Texas as attractive as we've been. Certificates of obligation is just, I heard it from Matt Lee earlier about the Certificate, obligation, destruction Act. I said, well, that's funny. That's an interesting title. But those are the kind of tools that many of us when we started in this business over 35 years ago had available to us. So we can make our communities forward. And I think we need to do more of that and not be ashamed of who you are. Continue to be part of this industry. This type of conferences allows us all to be wiser. So learn as much as you can. I would also encourage you to go out there and meet those speakers. Glen Hegar has now been, what about our speaker for the last five or seven years, and we've had this conference now 27 years and I've been privileged to share it with Moody's for quite a number of years and others, but Glen is our state budget officer controller and he always gets it wrong. I have yet to see Glen get it right, but on the good side, right, Gera, we al, he's always underestimating revenues and overestimate expenses, but what we have done in Texas is passed by Enum with a surplus of 32 billion or well over 32 billion is short of miraculous. So that's what you're going to see. That's what you're going to hear in the next couple of days. I also want you to go out there and don't be shy, go on before. Someone like Lee Deviney that just priced one of the largest financings in the history of our state, they got securitization financing, which was priced very successfully. And again, you got people like I mentioned earlier, Chris Poinsatte, you got Chris Brown from the city of Houston are the controller for the city. Someone who's been also a good friend of the bond buyer conference. Robert Puente from San Antonio Water Systems, Horatio Porter from NTTA, a school district I think saw the name of Mr. Ramos and Carmen from Fort Worth, AISD. Those are people that are actively involved. They are what I call on the front line when I get the privilege, or I don't know if it's privilege, but maybe the humility of going to DC and talk to regulators. The difference between what happens in dc, what happens in Texas, or at least in my case, is that many of us are right there on the front line. I mean, kind of interesting. I was telling Lee earlier, we're pricing this financing in New York on a Thursday and on Tuesday, I think he was before the finance committee of the state Senate dealing with issues of concern that they had. So when you go out there or when you're listening to these panels, dig a little deeper and just realize that the people that you're listening to are people that are right there on the front lines with you. So again, thank you, Mike, great conference. I'm looking forward to spending some days with you and I think it's now my time to say, and this brings the next balance. So who's the next moderator? Here you are. All right, coming up. Thank you.