Munis round out day unchanged as new issues hit market; New York State Environment deal prices

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, June 26 - Municipal yields were mostly unmoved on Tuesday as investors focused on new issues coming down the pipeline, including a few large sales out of the Empire State, market insiders reported.

Despite the lack of movement, the market had an overall firmer tone, said one trader.

"We feel firmer, but there's no major movement," he said.

"There's a lot of focus on primary, and it looks like most of the new deals are coming today and tomorrow. There is some significance to the July 4 holiday coming up. Lots of issuers are trying to get in ahead of the holiday, and summer typically slows down after that."

Heading up the day's active primary calendar, the New York State Environmental Facilities Corp. brought $313.13 million of series 2012D clean water and drinking water revolving funds revenue bonds.

The bonds (//AAA) were sold through Jefferies & Co. and Estrada Hinojosa & Co. Inc.

The bonds are due 2013 to 2028 with 2% to 5% coupons.

According to Alan Schankel, managing director with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, the 2027 bonds priced during the retail order period with a 5% coupon to yield 2.72%.

Proceeds will be used to refund bonds issued to provide financial assistance to the authority for water pollution and drinking water projects.

Seattle brings debt

In other news, the City of Seattle sold $345.67 million of series 2012 municipal light and power improvement and revenue refunding bonds, said a pricing sheet.

The deal included $293.28 million of series 2012A improvement and revenue refunding bonds, $9.39 million of series 2012B taxable refunding revenue bonds and $43 million of series 2012C clean renewable energy revenue bonds.

The bonds (Aa2/AA-/) were sold competitively with Citigroup Global Markets Inc. winning the 2012A bonds, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC winning the 2012B bonds and Wells Fargo Securities LLC winning the 2012C bonds, said Michael Van Dyck, the city's debt manager.

The 2012A bonds are due 2013 to 2028 with term bonds due in 2034, 2035, 2036 and 2041. The serial coupons range from 2% to 5%. The term bonds have 4% coupons. The 2034 bonds priced at 101.96. The 2035 bonds priced at 101.465. The 2036 bonds priced at 101.054, and the 2041 bonds priced at par.

Proceeds will be used to finance capital improvements to and conservation programs for the city's light system, finance capacity and efficiency improvements to the city's Boundary Hydroelectric Project and to refund the city's series 2002, 2003 and 2004 municipal light and power improvement and revenue refunding bonds.

The city last came to market in early June with $222.09 million of drainage and wastewater improvement and refunding bonds. Citigroup also won the bid for those bonds, which are due 2012 to 2034 with term bonds due in 2037 and 2042. The serial coupons range from 2% to 5%. The 2037 bonds have a 4% coupon and priced at 100.956, and the 2042 bonds have a 4% coupon and priced at 100.394.

Metro Council sells bonds

Elsewhere during the session, the Metropolitan Council of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., priced $214,035,000 of series 2012F taxable general obligation wastewater revenue refunding bonds, said a pricing sheet.

The bonds (Aaa/AAA/) were sold competitively with Wells Fargo winning the bid with a 1.5% true interest cost and a 1.504772% net interest cost. Five other banks participated in the bidding process, including Citigroup, Barclays Capital Inc., JPMorgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, said a source connected to the offering. The second-lowest TIC behind Wells Fargo came from Citigroup and was 1.712545%.

The bonds are due 2013 to 2022 with 0.25% to 2.1% coupons. The 2013 to 2015 and 2018 to 2022 bonds were priced at par. The 2016 bonds were not reoffered, and the 2017 bonds have a 1.2% coupon and priced at 100.395.

Proceeds will be used to refund existing wastewater debt.

The council last came to market in early June with $201,805,000 of series 2012E G.O. bonds in four tranches. The yields on that offering ranged from 0.18% to 3.4%.

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