New York City to price $616 million GOs; Upper Occoquan's $100 million bonds set to price

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, Dec. 7 - The coming week is likely to see fewer large municipal deals, with activity focused in smaller offerings.

But sell-siders remained optimistic Friday about the longer term picture for new issue volume.

"There's plenty of stuff coming up," said one market insider, noting that a lot of the offerings are on the smaller side.

"I don't see a lag in offerings," he added. "Still seeing lots of GOs [general obligation bonds] this week."

In fact, an offering of $616 million in New York City general obligation bonds (Aa3/AA/AA-) are set to price on Wednesday. The bonds are set to price in tranches with maturities ranging from 2008 to 2028.

Also set to price next week is $100 million in Upper Occoquan, Va., Sewer Authority bonds (A1/AA), which are expected to price on Thursday.

Those bonds will price in three tranches with the first tranche due 2032, the second due 2035 and the third due 2040.

On the smaller end, Minneapolis St. Paul Metro Airport has an issue of $75 million in bonds set to price on Monday.

Secondary action picks up

After the Bureau of Labor Statistics released unemployment numbers that were not far off from expectations, trading volume picked up.

"Lots of small retail stuff," said one trader Friday morning. "I really can't comment on exact trades but let's just say it's been very busy today so far."

Another trading source also said Friday afternoon that things on her desk were really busy.

"Usually, on Friday, it's kind of quiet," she said. "We've had quite a few munis trading today."

On Friday, the BLS reported that 94,000 new jobs were created in the United States during November, compared to about 166,000 new jobs in October. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.8%, up from 4.7% the previous month.

Miami-Dade issues refunding bonds

Earlier this week, Miami Dade Aviation issued two refunding bonds, including $410 million in alternative minimum tax bonds to refund issues originally from 1996 and 1997, as well as $350 million in non-AMT bonds.

"We generated a 5½% savings [from the refunding]," said Rachael Baum, financing director for Miami-Dade, Florida, in a phone interview conducted Friday.

The $410 million in series 2007-C4 bonds, which are AMT bonds, have a serial structure between 2008 and 2026 and the $350 million in series 2007-D notes have tranches due 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2026.

Citigroup Smith Barney was the senior manager on the refunding issue.

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