Utah Transit Authority rounds out busy week with $700 million bonds; New Jersey plans $300 million sale

By Cristal Cody and Sheri Kasprzak

New York, March 28 - Friday rounded out a busy week for municipals pricings and the week of March 31 is gearing up to be an active week as well, as issuers head out for funding in spite of what may be less than ideal market conditions.

Elsewhere, auction-rate securities continued to top municipals headlines.

Utah Transit bonds price

Heading up pricing action on Friday, the Utah Transit Authority released details Friday from the sale of $700 million sales tax revenue bonds that priced with a 5.007748% true interest cost.

The series 2008A bonds (Aa3/AAA/AA) bonds priced Wednesday with coupons from 3.92% to 5.09%. The yields were not available.

The bonds have serial maturities from 2018 through 2028 and term bonds due 2032, 2036 and 2038.

UBS Investment Bank is the senior manager, and co-managers are Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley.

Proceeds will be used to finance system improvements.

Newport News, Va., priced $58.755 million bonds with a 4.3256% true interest cost, the issuer said Friday.

The city priced $33.395 million series 2008 A general obligation general improvement bonds and $25.38 million series 2008 B general obligation water bonds.

The bonds (Aa2/AA/-) priced with average coupons for the total sale from 4% to 5% to yield 2.05% to 4.82%, said Rhonda Everton, senior budget analyst for the city.

The bonds have maturities from 2009 through 2028.

BB&T Capital Markets won the bidding in the competitive sale.

Proceeds will be used for improvement projects for public buildings, schools, streets, parks and extensions to the city's water system.

New Jersey bonds to price

New Jersey plans to price $300 million certificates of participation on April 1, according to a release Friday from Moody's Investors Service.

Moody's assigned an A1 rating to the series 2008A certificates.

Proceeds will be used to finance the purchase of locomotives and railcars to be subleased to New Jersey Transit and to capitalize interest through December 15, 2009.

Oakland Joint Powers Financing Authority in California plans to price lease revenue refunding bonds on April 2, Moody's reported.

The $110.3 million series 2008A-1 tax-exempt bonds and the $20.3 million series 2008A-2 bonds are rated A2.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to refund the 2005 series A-1 and A-2 auction rate revenue bonds.

The bonds have experienced one failed auction and since January have carried a 7% interest rate as opposed to the 3.75% the city was paying prior to the auction reset, according to Moody's.

More auction-rate conversions

In the latest auction-rate news, on Friday the Los Angeles County treasurer and tax collector said it would submit bids on $84.4 million in auction-rate revenue bonds from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation.

The $42.4 million series 2007A and $42.4 million series 2007B bonds are due 2037 and were priced through the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.

The treasurer and tax collector's office intends to bid on the bonds beginning April 1 at the designated rate, which would have been 4.11% if bids had been submitted Friday.

The treasurer and tax collector's office also plans to submit bids on $318.575 million Los Angeles County Museum of Art auction-rate revenue bonds.

The office will bid beginning April 1 on the $50 million series 2004A and $68.575 million series 2004B bonds due 2034; and the $200 million series 2007A, B, C and D revenue bonds due 2037.

The bonds priced through the California Statewide Communities Development Authority.

Citigroup Global Markets is the broker.

In other auction-rate news, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta announced plans to submit bids of 2.5% per year on $110 million bonds beginning with the April 2 auction.

The series 2005A revenue bonds priced through the DeKalb Private Hospital Authority.

The broker dealers are SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Banc of America Securities, Citigroup Global Markets and Wachovia Securities.

Silver Cross Hospitals and Medical Center in Illinois also announced plans to convert or refinance its auction rate bonds.

The series 2005B, 2005C and 2005D bonds priced through the Illinois Finance Authority.

Silver Cross said in a notice that it has not determined whether the bonds will be converted to a different rate period or whether the bonds will be refinanced. A date has not been selected.

Additional information about the bond amounts was not available.

Paradise Valley school bonds set

Looking at upcoming offerings, the Paradise Valley Unified School District No. 69 in Maricopa County, Ariz. will price $77.2 million in school improvement and refunding bonds Tuesday, said Tom Elliott, the district's assistant superintendent of business services.

The bonds (//AA-) will be sold on a negotiated basis through lead manager Piper Jaffray, and will include $40 million in school improvement bonds and $37.2 million in refunding bonds.

"The proceeds will be used for the construction of an elementary school, and a plethora of HVAC system replacements, renovations, expansions," Elliott said.

"A lot of small projects with the elementary school being the big project."

The rest will be used to refund a portion of the district's outstanding bonds for debt service savings.

Also coming up, Norfolk, Va., plans to price $58.515 million water revenue bonds in a competitive sale on April 8, according to a preliminary official statement.

The series 2008 bonds (A1/AA+/AA) have serial maturities from 2009 through 2038.

Public Financial Management is the financial advisor.

Proceeds will be used to finance improvements to the city's water system.

Philadelphia plans offering

Later in April, Philadelphia will price $203.8 million in series 2008A general obligation refunding bonds during the week of April 14, according to a calendar of offerings.

The bonds (//BBB+) will be sold on a negotiated basis. The lead underwriter could not be determined by press time Friday.

Proceeds will be used to refund the city's outstanding series 2003B-1 and series 2003B-2 general obligation bonds.

In other upcoming sales, the Health and Educational Facilities Board of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davison County in Tennessee plans to price $353.31 million in revenue refunding bonds for Vanderbilt University, according to a preliminary official statement.

The offering includes series 2008A-1, 2008B-1 and 2008C-1 bonds, all of which are fixed-rate bonds, and series 2008A-2, 2008B-2 and 2008C-2 bonds, all of which are term bonds.

The bonds (Aa2/AA/AA) will be sold on a negotiated basis through lead manager Merrill Lynch & Co. The co-managers are Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to retire commercial paper and refund the university's series 1997A and series 1998A revenue refunding bonds.

The exact pricing date was not immediately available.

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