San Francisco Airport prices $500 million bonds at 5.134139% TIC; Indiana Finance Authority prices

By Cristal Cody and Sheri Kasprzak

New York, March 19 - Wednesday proved to be a particularly active pricing day and the San Francisco Airport Commission led the activity with $500,889,121 in AMT and non-AMT bonds (A1).

The bonds include issues 34C through 34F AMT and non-AMT bonds with a true interest cost of 5.134139%, said Kevin Kone with the commission's finance department.

The bonds have coupons ranging from 4% to 5.75% and yields ranging from 3.3% to 5.5%.

The commission had originally planned to sell $573 million of the bonds, but some of the investors backed out and the size was cut, Kone said in an earlier interview with Prospect News.

The bonds were sold through lead manager Citigroup Global Markets.

Proceeds will be used to refund the commission's series 2003B bonds.

"We've been shaking the trees this morning to try and get a particular interest rate on one of the maturities," said Kone.

Wednesday afternoon, Kone said the numbers had still not been finalized, but added that the sale "went well."

"We're basically just checking the numbers to make sure we did come out with the rate we wanted," he added.

The bonds were sold on a negotiated basis through lead manager Citigroup Global Markets.

The serial bonds are due 2009 to 2026.

Proceeds will be used to refund the commission's series 2003B bonds.

Indiana Finance Authority bonds price

Elsewhere, the Indiana Finance Authority priced $178.87 million in lease revenue bonds (Aa3/AA/AA) on Wednesday, Dan Kramer, the authority's debt manager, confirmed with Prospect News.

The final numbers were not immediately available, but Kramer said they will be available Thursday morning.

Morgan Stanley was the lead manager for the negotiated sale.

The offering included $127.29 million in series 2008A-1 and 2008A-2 bonds and $51.58 million in series 2008B lease revenue bonds.

Proceeds will be used to refund the authority's series 2004A, 2004B and 2004C bonds.

Wisconsin bonds scheduled to price

In other news, the state of Wisconsin had been scheduled to price $366.4 million in taxable general fund appropriation refunding bonds (/A+/), but the pricing could not be confirmed Wednesday.

The bonds were set to sell on a negotiated basis through lead manager Citigroup Global Markets.

The serial bonds are due 2009 to 2013 with a term bond due 2025.

Proceeds will refund the state's series 2003B bonds.

Rancho California Water District Financing Authority had also been set to price bonds Wednesday.

The authority had $167.17 million in series 2008 fixed-rate refunding revenue bonds (A1/AA/AA) on the calendar Wednesday, but calls to the authority were not immediately returned.

The negotiated offering was sold through lead manager Citigroup and the proceeds will refund the authority's series 2001B, 2004B, 2005A and 2005B revenue bonds.

The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority in New Mexico was expected to price $55.46 million revenue bonds on Wednesday.

The series 2008 joint water and sewer system improvement bonds (Aa2) were being sold in a negotiated sale managed by RBC Capital Markets.

Proceeds will be used to make system improvements and fund the San Juan Chama drinking water project, which is scheduled to be completed this year.

East Alabama Health Care Authority prices bonds

Also on Wednesday, the East Alabama Health Care Authority priced $77.34 million health care facilities bonds on Wednesday, a source told Prospect News.

Series 2008 B-1 bonds initially will be issued in the fixed rate mode, and series 2008 B-2 bonds will be issued as a term rate.

The Frazier Lanier Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. are the underwriters.

Series 2008 B bonds will be priced to refund the authority's series' 2008 A-3 bonds. The $25 million series A-3 bonds priced Tuesday to refund the authority's 2006 bonds, said Sam Price, chief financial officer of the East Alabama Health Care Authority.

The pricing terms were not immediately available.

Sacramento, Northern Municipal sales delayed

A couple of offerings were put on the backburner Wednesday.

Sacramento County, Calif., postponed pricing $350.675 million taxable pension funding bonds until late next week, the issuer said Wednesday.

The series 2008 refunding bonds had been expected to price Tuesday.

The bonds will bear interest at the one-month Libor plus a spread, said Chris Marx, county debt officer.

The bonds mature July 10, 2030.

Morgan Stanley is the underwriter for the negotiated sale.

Proceeds will be used to refund and defease $346.8 million outstanding principal of series 2004 C-1 taxable pension funding bonds.

The Northern Municipal Power Agency in Minnesota delayed pricing $94.545 million electric system revenue bonds until Thursday, the financial advisor told Prospect News.

Series 2008A bonds of $72.85 million have serial maturities from 2009 through 2021. Series 2008B taxable bonds of $21.695 million mature 2009 through 2017.

The bonds had been expected to price Wednesday, but the agency delayed the sale a day to line up a purchaser, said Dan Eitrheim, senior vice president of the Dougherty & Co., the agency's financial advisor.

The bonds (Aaa/AAA/) are insured by Assured Guaranty Corp.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. is the underwriter of the negotiated sale.

Proceeds will be used to finance the refunding of the agency's outstanding series 2002A-1, 2002A-2 and 2002B revenue bonds, terminate series 2002 swap transactions and satisfy the debt service reserve account requirement.

The series 2002 bonds will be redeemed on April 18.

Mississippi Business Finance

Details of the sale of $77.24 million variable-rate demand revenue bonds by the Mississippi Business Finance Corp. were released Wednesday.

The group priced the bonds with an initial 2.78% variable rate, a sell-side source said Wednesday.

The series 2008 term bonds (A1/-/-) for the Renaissance at Colony Park project will reset weekly.

The bonds are due May 1, 2035.

Morgan Keegan & Co. is the underwriter.

Proceeds will be used for the development project, a shopping, dining and office complex located near the Natchez Trace Parkway.

March 27 pricings line up

The week of March 25 is shaping up to be a busy sale period.

The Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside County, Calif., plans to price $54.575 million water and sewer revenue certificates of participation by March 27, the issuer said Wednesday.

The series 2008B variable-rate certificates (Aa3/AA-/AA) will reset weekly. The certificates are due July 1, 2035.

UBS Investment Bank is the underwriter.

Proceeds will finance the prepayment of the series 2006B installment payments and refund the outstanding series 2006B auction-rate certificates, said Charles Rathbone, chief financial officer for the district.

"They'll be pulled-auction rate certificates," he said. "We're redeeming the whole thing so we don't have to worry about auctions. We want to move into variable rate with uninsured and rely on our double-A underlying rating."

The Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority also expects to price $140.6 million variable rate demand revenue bonds for Tufts University on March 27, the issuer confirmed Wednesday.

The university plans to sell $86.4 million series 2008N-1 bonds due Aug. 15, 2040 and $54.2 million series 2008N-2 bonds due Aug. 15, 2034.

The bonds initially will bear interest at a weekly rate.

Lehman Brothers will set the initial rate.

The university will use the proceeds to refund $54 million in series 2004K auction-rate bonds and $86 million in series 2006L auction rate bonds.

The authority also expects to remarket $30.5 million series G revenue bonds for Tufts University on the same date, said Liam Sullivan, authority spokesman.

The bonds, due Feb. 15, 2026, originally priced as auction variable rate securities. The bonds will be converted to a weekly rate.

Lehman Brothers is the remarketing agent.

The authority has received so many questions about auction and variable rate securities that it launched a rate tracker on its web site, at www.mhefa.org/?q=financing, last week, Sullivan said.

"It's a weekly report that shows the current rate, the historical rates, the year-to-date average and the '07 average rate, so you can see how they've been moving," he said.

"It's information we had and it's a useful tool for folks."

In other pricings set for March 27, the Jacksonville Port Authority will sell $90 million in series 2008 revenue bonds (//A) on a negotiated basis through lead manager Morgan Stanley.

The bonds are due 2009 to 2027 with term bonds.

The proceeds will finance or refinance expense related to a marine facilities project and to purchase an insurance policy to fund a reserve account.

Georgia highway revenue bonds planned

The Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority plans to price $600 million revenue bonds early next week, a source said Wednesday.

The authority will price the bonds in two tranches of $480 million series 2008A federal highway grant anticipation revenue bonds and $120 million series 2008A federal highway reimbursement revenue bonds, according to the preliminary official statement released Tuesday.

The bonds have serial maturities from 2009 through 2020.

The authority also expects to price up to $150 million federal highway reimbursement revenue commercial paper notes soon after the bond sale.

JPMorgan is the senior manager of the negotiated sale.

Proceeds will be used to finance a land transportation project and refund the authority's outstanding series A commercial paper notes.

Kent Hospital plans $227.32 million

Looking ahead, the Kent Hospital Finance Authority out of Michigan will price $227.32 million in revenue refunding bonds sometime this April, according to a preliminary official statement. No exact pricing date could be determined by press time Wednesday.

The bonds (Aa3/AA/) will be sold for Spectrum Health.

The bonds will be sold through lead manager Citigroup Global Markets.

The sale includes series 2008A-1, 2008A-2, 2008A-3 and 2008A-4 bonds, which are term bonds due 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Proceeds will be used to refund the authority's outstanding series 2001B bonds and series 2007 bonds.

Dallas hospital plans conversion

Methodist Hospitals of Dallas intends to convert the auction rate period for $200 million hospital revenue bonds in early April.

The subseries 2007A-1, A-2, B-1 and B-2 bonds will be converted from a seven-day auction period to a flexible auction period through issuer Tarrant County Cultural Education Facilities Finance Corp.

The series 2007A-1 bonds will be converted on April 4, and the A-2 bonds will be converted on April 7.

The series 2007B-1 bonds are expected to convert on April 8, and the B-2 bonds will be converted on April 9.

The Miami-Dade County Health Facilities Authority also plans to change the auction rate mode on $115.325 million hospital revenue bonds on April 17, according to a notice.

The $45.325 million series 2006B-2 bonds will be converted to a weekly interest rate.

The $70 million series 2006B-4 bonds will be converted to a long-term interest rate.

The bonds were priced for the Miami Children's Hospital.

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