Though SWS has served as co-manager on the City’s Utility System Refunding Revenue Bonds, Series 2017 (“Series 2017”) and Capital Improvement Refunding Revenue Bonds, Series 2015 (“Series 2015”), it was the firm’s first engagement with the City as bookrunning senior manager.

The Series 2021 Bonds are being issued for the purpose of providing funds, together with other legally available moneys of the City, to (i) advance refund and defease a portion of the outstanding City’s Special Obligation Refunding and Improvement Revenue Bonds, Series 2013 and to (ii) pay certain costs of issuing the Series 2021 Bonds.

Pre-marketing took place on Monday, June 28th and the IOI period took place during the afternoon of Tuesday, June 29th and the morning of Wednesday, June 30th.

Given investor feedback, coupled with factors such as the volatility in the Treasury market during the month of June and a number of larger deals looking to price prior to the July 4th weekend, SWS suggested going out in the IOI period at the same levels as that of the pre-marketing period to build the order book.

During the first IOI period on the 29th, the 2022 ~ 2032 maturities were fully subscribed. After continued effort, towards the end of the IOI period on the 29th SWS’s sales team succeeded in finding an investor that would take in the remaining portion of the 2033 ~ 2038 maturities, assuming the order period would be open for a short period of time on the morning of June 30th.

Following the second IOI period, which had a 15-minute window, all of the maturities were fully subscribed. The transaction was 2.2x times oversubscribed on aggregate and generated more than $113 million of orders; all of the orders were submitted by SWS.

The transaction received strong interest, including orders from 17 investors; over half of these investors were those who did not participate in the City’s Series 2015 and 2017 transactions mentioned above.

Given the strong book of orders, the 2023 ~ 2025, 2027 ~ 2028, and 2030 ~ 2032 maturities were tightened by 5 bps, and the 2026 maturity was tightened by 3 bps during price guidance. Spreads were further tightened following Launch, with the 2023 ~ 2032 maturities receiving an additional 3 bps bump.

The transaction resulted in $8.376 million of net present value savings, or 17.5% of the refunded par amount, and achieved an all-in TIC of 2.35%. Annual cashflow savings amounts to approximately $560,000 through 2038.