Alabama’s $1.5 billion deal led Southeast as 2021 volume inched up

Issuers in Alabama, Florida and Georgia took the gold, silver and bronze in the Southeast in 2021, each with deals topping the billion-dollar mark in 2021, which pushing the region’s muni issuance up 1.8% from the prior year even as taxable volume plunged and refunding deals dropped dramatically.

Issuers in the Southeast sold $78.56 billion of municipal bonds in 2021 in 1,838 issues, according to data from Refinitiv. This was up from the $77.18 billion sold in 1,775 issues in 2020.

Tax-exempt issuance rose 17.2% to $58.2 billion in 1,444 deals last year, compared to $49.6 billion in 1,348 sales in the prior year. Taxable issuance plunged 33.7% to $17.82 billion in 374 deals versus $26.87 billion in 414 deals in 2020.

“What is noteworthy in most of the categories is that the number of transactions increased except for competitives, refundings, and taxables,” John Hallacy, founder of John Hallacy Consulting, LLC, told The Bond Buyer. “Those categories are very interest rate sensitive in a rising rate environment. Overall, the region continues on a positive growth trajectory.”

New money bonding rose 22.2% to $52.6 billion in 1,182 issues compared to $43.03 billion in 1.055 issues in the previous year. Refunding deals dropped 17.7% to $20.3 billion in 560 deals, from $24.65 billion in 598 deals in 2020. Deals Refinitiv classifies as combined new money and refunding plunged 40.3% to $5.66 billion in 96 deals compared to $9.50 billion in 122 deals in the prior year.

Negotiated deals totaled $53.90 billion in 1,094 issues a 3.6% volume gain over the previous year. Competitive sales totaled $18.86 billion in 486 offerings last year a 0.6% year-over-year increase. There were $5.8 billion of private placements done in 258 deals in 2021 compared to the $6.4 billion in 305 deals in 2020.

In the category of individual achievement, the top single deal in the Southeast region last year was from the Alabama Federal Aid Highway Finance Authority, which came to market with a $1.517 billion transaction in October.

BofA Securities priced the offering, which consisted of $1.496 billion of Series 2021B taxable special obligation revenue bonds and $20.44 million of Series 2021A tax-exempt special obligation revenue bonds.

Proceeds from the taxables refunded the authority’s outstanding debt and reimbursed the Alabama Department of Transportation for capital improvement projects. The authority had about $1.269 billion of debt outstanding, consisting of fixed-rated grant anticipation revenue vehicles, or Garvees, and special obligation revenue bonds.

Proceeds from the smaller tax-exempt series funded various capital projects.

Co-managers were Goldman Sachs, Frazer Lanier Co., Citigroup, Piper Sandler, Wells Fargo Corporate & Investment Banking, Academy Securities and Securities Capital Corp.

That deal, and the region’s fourth-largest, a $1 billion sale from the Black Belt Energy Gas District in December, pushed volume from Alabama up 27% year over year to almost $8.6 billion, trailing only Florida and Georgia in the Southeast.

Five of the region’s 11 states posted year-over-year gains, led by Tennessee, which almost doubled to $9.1 billion.

Florida, the largest source of bonds in the region, was down almost 16% to $18.1 billion. Nationally, Florida ranked number four for bond issuance in 2021, the only Southeast state making into the top 10.

Next came Georgia at $9.5 billion, a 10.9% gain; Virginia at $9.2 billion, down almost 25%; and Tennessee.

The region’s top issuer, Miami-Dade County in Florida, sold almost $2.5 billion of bonds.

That was helped by the region’s second biggest deal, selling $1.243 billion of bonds for PortMiami in August in the offering that won The Bond Buyer’s Deal of The Year award.

It was the largest port transaction since the COVID-19 pandemic began and the biggest bond deal in the port’s history.

“The 2021 Seaport financing was a landmark transaction for our community — representing the largest bond financing in the Port’s history and the largest seaport credit to sell in the state of Florida since the pandemic,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told The Bond Buyer last year. “Congratulations to the financing team, who worked to restructure PortMiami’s debt for over a year.”

John Generalli, managing director and lead banker at Wells Fargo, told The Bond Buyer last year that the port was taking advantage of current interest rates to put into place a new master ordinance that would allow it to refund all of its outstanding seaport revenue bond debt as well as direct debt issued by the county for the benefit of the port.

The transaction also took out some of the commercial paper the port has outstanding by converting some variable-rate debt to fixed-rate debt and by issuing refunding bonds for savings.

Wells Fargo Corporate & Investment Banking priced the issue. Assured Guaranty Municipal insured more than $800 million of the issue.

Blaylock Van, Siebert Williams Shank, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Janney, Mischler Financial Group and UBS Financial Services were co-managers. HilltopSecurities was the financial advisor. Hogan Lovells and the Law Offices of Steve E. Bullock, P.A., were the co-bond counsel.

Coming in third among the region’s largest deals was the state of Georgia. The state competitively sold $1.1 billion of tax-exempt and taxable general obligation bonds in June. Proceeds went to provide funding for state capital projects.

Wells Fargo won the series of tax-exempts while Citigroup won a second series of exempts. Morgan Stanley won both of the taxable tranches.

Public Resources Advisory Group and Terminus Municipal Advisors are the financial advisors. Gray Pannell & Woodward is the bond counsel and Kutak Rock is the disclosure counsel.

BofA Securities led the Southeast’s ranking of senior managers, credited by Refinitiv with $10.3 billion of volume on 93 deals. Wells Fargo and Citi were next.

PFM Financial Advisors was well ahead in the financial advisor table, credited with $16.9 billion over 170 deals. HilltopSecurities followed with $6.5 billion and Public Resources Advisory Group with $5.7 billion.

Butler Snow led among Southeast bond counsel, credited with $5.9 billion on 107 deals, ahead of Bass Berry & Sims PLC with $4.4 billion and Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP at $3.1 billion.

Around the region, general obligation issuance was off 1.8% to $19.7 billionwhile revenue bond sales were up 3% to $58.8 billion.

Volume wrapped with bond insurance was up 32% to $6.3 billion, reflecting a national trend.