University of Pittsburgh Taxable Refunding Bonds: $525 Million

This week’s featured bond comes from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The University of Pittsburgh is issuing taxable university refunding bonds in the amount of $525 million the week of December 26, 2016. These bonds are scheduled to be issued as a single series, used primarily to refund various previously issued series of capital project and refunding bonds, and refunding bonds, from 2000, 2002, and 2009. The bonds are unsecured general obligations of the University. No specific revenues are pledged. Principle and interest will be paid only from revenues of the University. Interest received on the bonds is taxable as ordinary income. Further details on the purposes, security, tax-status, and other matters pertaining to these University of Pittsburgh refunding bonds can the found in the preliminary official statement, provided by MuniOS.

The University of Pittsburgh is located in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area, which as of October 2016 has an unemployment rate of 5.5%, which is 1.0% higher than the same time last year, and 0.6% lower than the national rate.

Provided at left is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of the University of Pennsylvania, along with the medians for other public higher education institutions for 2015-2016, courtesy of Merritt Research Services, LLC. Merritt has many of the sector medians publicly available and regularly updated on their Benchmark Central page. (Merritt believes the data to be reliable but does not make any representations as to its accuracy or completeness). In addition to the Merritt information related to the featured bond, more information can be found on our municipal bond calendar, city, state, and county pages, and our employment database. These facts and numbers are for informational purposes, and should not be considered an official disclosure for potential investors. Investors should consult the official statement. None of the information provided should be construed as a recommendation by MuniNet Guide, MuniNet LLC, Merritt Research Services LLC, or any of their employees. Information and analysis is for informational purposes only.