Illinois names financing team for $4.5 billion bond offering

[September 23, 2017] 

SPRINGFIELD

The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget announced today that it has selected the financing team for an upcoming $4.5 billion sale of general obligation bonds by the State of Illinois.

The $4.5 billion in bonds will be a negotiated sale and is part of the $6 billion in bonds authorized by the General Assembly earlier this year. In addition to the $4.5 billion sale, the state plans to competitively bid $1.5 billion in general obligation bonds. Both series are expected to go to market in October and close in mid-November. Proceeds of the bonds will be used to pay down a portion of the State’s bills.

Governor Rauner agreed to sell the bonds to provide relief to vendors with unpaid bills, some of whom have carried the state’s debt for over two years. Nearly two-thirds of the bill backlog is accruing late payment interest at the annual statutory rate of up to 12%. The bonds will enable the state to finance the state’s obligations at a more favorable rate.

The following firms will assist with the $4.5 billion negotiated bond sale: joint senior managers: Barclays Capital, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets, J.P. Morgan Securities, Loop Capital Markets, and Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. The co-senior managers are RBC Capital Markets, Piper Jaffray & Co., PNC Capital Markets, Ramirez & Co., and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company.

The co-managers are Academy Securities, Backstrom McCarley Berry & Co., Blaylock Van, Cabrera Capital Markets, Estrada Hinojosa & Company, George K. Baum & Company, IFS Securities, Mesirow Financial, Mischler Financial Group, Raymond James & Associates, Rice Financial, Stern Brothers, and U.S. Bancorp.

Bond and disclosure counsel is Chapman and Cutler LLP and co-bond counsel are Burke Burns & Pinelli, Ltd. and Charity & Associates, P.C. The state’s financial advisors for the transaction are PFM Financial Advisors LLC and Public Resources Advisory Group.

“The team my office has selected is highly qualified, experienced, diverse, and includes firms in national and regional financial sectors, as well as firms owned by minorities, women and veterans,” said Scott Harry, Director of GOMB.

Additionally the state plans to issue up to $750 million in general obligation bonds in December, 2017 for fiscal year 2018 capital projects through a competitive bidding process.

[Office of the Governor Bruce Rauner]