Featured New Municipal Bond Issue, Week of 09/18/2017: Anchorage Water and Wastewater Revenue Refunding Bonds – $169 Million
This week’s featured new municipal bond issue comes from the State of Alaska. The Municipality of Anchorage is issuing water and wastewater revenue refunding bonds in the amount of $169 million the week of September 18, 2017. These revenue refunding bonds are being issued in three series.
- 2017 Series B – Water Revenue Refunding Bonds – $90 million – Tax-Exempt
- 2017 Series B – Wastewater Revenue Refunding Bonds – $66 million – Tax-Exempt
- 2017 Series C – Water Revenue Refunding Bonds – $14 million – Taxable
The purpose of these bonds is to refund previously issued water and wastewater revenue bonds from 2004, 2007, and 2009. Security for the bonds is lien and charge on gross revenues and money on hand in the bond fund, subject only to payment of operating expenses for water and wastewater services. It should be clarified that 2017 Series B and 2017 Series C Water Revenue Refunding Bonds are payable only from gross water revenues; revenues from the wastewater utility do not secure and are not available for repayment of the water revenue refunding bonds. Similarly, 2017 Series B Wastewater Revenue Refunding Bonds are payable only from gross wastewater revenues, and revenues from the water utility do not secure and are not available for repayment of the wastewater revenue refunding bonds.
Further details on the purposes, tax-status, and security, as well as other matters pertaining to this new municipal bond issue can be found in the preliminary official statement, provided by MuniOS.
As of July 2017, the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area has an unemployment rate of 6.2%, which is 1.9% higher than the national rate for July, and 0.5% higher than at the same time in 2016. The chart below (click to expand) shows the changes in the Anchorage MSA, State of Alaska and U.S. unemployment rates for the past ten years. MuniNet provides this data and more, easily accessible, for all 50 states and each Metropolitan Statistical Area in the country, in our Employment Database.
Provided at left (click to expand) is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of the Anchorage Wastewater Utility Fund as of 12/31/2016, compared with the medians for other water/sewer medians 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.
by Jeffrey L Garceau