Electronic toll collection at the Belvidere Plaza, Illinois
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Featured Bond – Week of June 24, 2019: The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority $300 Million in Toll Highway Senior Revenue Bonds
Overview
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is issuing $300 Million in Toll Highway Senior Revenue Bonds through negotiated sale. The pricing date for the bonds is expected to be June 25 or 26 with an expected closing date of July 11. The underwriters are Wells Fargo and PNC. The bonds are fixed-rate bonds with serial maturities from January 1, 2036 through January 1, 2041 with a term maturity of January 1, 2044. The 2019A bonds are being used to provide funds to finance costs of the Move Illinois Program, make a deposit to the Debt Reserve Accounts, and pay costs of issuance.
The bonds are rated AA-, A1, and AA- by Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P, respectively.
About The Illinois Tollway & Move Illinois Program
The Illinois Tollway is a road system serving metropolitan Chicago, one of the largest and most diverse regional economies in the United States. It has seen approximately 2.9% year over year growth in transactions since 2010. Despite toll increases throughout the last year, there has been low toll elasticity for both passenger and commercial traffic. The projected pro forma debt service coverage for 2019 is 2.6 x. The Tollway system comprises of 294 centerline miles of interstate tollways throughout 12 counties. The Authority collects tolls at 28 mainline plazas and 59 ramp plazas. In 2017, Illinois Tollway had the second highest rate of electronic tolling at 87.8% , only behind Metropolitan Transportation Authority (NY).
The 15-year long $14.2 billion Move Illinois Program (2012-2026) addresses many long-term system needs. About 70% is set to be expended on the state of good repair and 30% towards new projects. The new projects are a new Elgin O-Hare Western Access and a New I-294/I-57 Interchange. $7 billion is expected to have been spent by 2019. The program is intended to improve mobility, relieve congestion, reduce pollution, create jobs, and stimulate the regional economy. The $14.2 billion is to be financed with $5.8 billion of bond proceeds and the remainder with pay-as-you-go revenues.
Security for the Bonds
The 2019A bonds are payable solely from and secured solely by a pledge of an lien on the Net Revenues of the Toll system. For any fiscal year, the Net Revenues are the Revenues excluding the amounts transferred to the Revenue Fund from the Construction Fund and to the Trustee by the Authority from the System Reserve Account, the Improvement Account or the Renewal and Replacement Account, less the operating expenses for such Fiscal year. The bonds are federally tax-exempt and state taxable.
These details and more on purposes, security, risks and other matters pertaining to these Illinois State Toll Highway Senior Revenue bonds can the found in the official statement, provided by MuniOS. After registering, if needed, visitors can link directly to the official statement as well as an investor’s roadshow by searching for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority .
Statistical Snapshot: Illinois State Toll Highway Authority Selected Financial and Economic Indicators
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority financial snapshot as of December 31, 2017 Fiscal Year Audit. Source: Merritt Research Services, LLC
Provided above is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority along with the medians for other toll roads, 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.
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.
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 sales documents due to methodology or survey base variances.