Public Building Authority refinances $588.9M in bonds
The Government Development Bank, at the Minillas complex in Santurce, confirmed the results of the refinancing transaction. (Credit: © Mauricio Pascual)
The Government Development Bank confirmed Thursday that the Puerto Rico Public Buildings Authority completed the refinancing of $588.9 million in bonds through a placement in the exempt market.
As a result of the emission, which took place one day after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the government’s credit to “negative” from “stable,” the agency seeks to refinance its Series D, G and J bonds to generate savings and repay certain credit lines granted by the GDB.
The PBA’s bonds are guaranteed by the commonwealth and thus carry the same classification as the central government: Baa1 (Moody’s), BBB (S&P) and BBB+ (Fitch).
In a brief statement, the GDB said the PBA received some $450 million in retail orders and some $1.2 billion in institutional orders, for a total of more than $1.65 billion.
“In total, we received more than $1.65 billion in orders for less than $600 million in bonds available for sale,” the GDB said, adding the strong investor interest resulted in a reduction in the 30-year performance by 0.125 percent, from 5.50 percent to 5.375 percent.
The transaction is expected to be approved today by the PBA’s and the GDB’s boards.
