City of Portland, OR. Photo Courtesy of https://www.goodfreephotos.com
Photo via Good Free Photos
Featured Municipal Bond Issue: State of Oregon – General Obligation Bonds – $518.9 Million
Our featured new issue municipal bond of the week is the State of Oregon.
The Bonds
The State of Oregon is issuing general obligation bonds in the amount of $518.9 million the week of February 11, 2019 (revised from February 4, 2019 expected sales week). These bonds are being issued in four series. The 2019 Series A issue consists of $309.5 million in tax-exempt bonds. The second series (2019 Series B) has $40.2 million in federally taxable Sustainability Bonds. The third series (2019 Series C) totals $19.6 million in federally taxable bonds. The remaining fourth series (2019 Series D) is a $149.5 tax-exempt bond issue .
Bond Proceeds of all four series will provide new money for state projects or state grant programs as well as pay the costs of issuance. The Series B bonds are being issued to finance affordable housing projects and have been designated Oregon “Sustainability Bonds”.
The bonds are direct obligations of the state of Oregon, and the full faith and credit and taxing power of the State are pledged to pay the principal and interest on the 2019 bonds when due. The ad valorem taxing power of the state is not pledged to pay the 2019 bonds.
Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are the senior managers leading the negotiated underwriting for this bond issue. The 2019 Bonds are rated Aa1 by Moody’s, AA+ by Standard & Poor’s and AA+ by Fitch.
Details on the purposes, tax-status, security, as well as other matters and risks pertaining to these State of Oregon general obligation bonds can be found in the preliminary official statement (register on the MuniOS website. After registering, visitors can link direct to the official statement as well as a Roadshow Presentation regarding this bond issue by searching for the State of Oregon on the MuniOS website.
About the State of Oregon and Financial Snapshot
Located in the Pacific Northwest, the state’s 2018 population is 4,146,404, up by 1.4% from the previous year. The largest city in Oregon is the city of Portland with a population of 639,600.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the State of Oregon (as of November 2018) has an unemployment rate of 4.0%, which is .5% higher than the national rate for November, unchanged compared to the same time in 2017.
Source: Merritt Research Services, LLC; Financial FY 2018 Snapshot of the State of Oregon
Provided above (click to expand) is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of State of Oregon as of the end of fiscal year 6/30/2018, compared with the medians for other U.S. States for 2017-2018, 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.
Disclosures and Disclaimers
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 which can be found on the website MuniOs.com. 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. Potential investors should rely only on the official documents and figures provided in the official statement (prospectus). Although the numbers presented in this summary are primarily derived from public documents, including issuer audits, issuer reports and other public sources such as federal reporting agencies , they are not intended to replace official information presented in connection with the bond sale. Medians may differ from official issuance documents due to methodology or survey base variances.