Missouri’s Branson Airport seeks federal grants, bondholder forbearance
2 min readSeventeen years after Branson Airport issued bonds to fund the construction of an airport that opened in May 2009, it is again asking for forbearance from bondholders as it seeks federal funds for upgrades.
Bond trustee UMB Bank last month
In January 2018, it
The debt restructuring resulting from that settlement allowed Branson to authorize a single class of 1 million equity membership units to replace all prior membership units and warrant rights, according to a December 2018
In May 2018, the airport and bondholders agreed to exchange the $113.795 million outstanding 2007 bonds, and accrued interest of $41.7 million, with $35.5 million of new unrated bondsplus equity in the company.
But the airport “subsequently defaulted on the 2018 bonds,” noted Lisa Washburn, chief credit officer and managing director at Municipal Market Analytics, Inc., which tracks defaults such as Branson’s.
According to the
The airport’s
According to the
After Branson Airport transfers the 40 acres to Taney County, the county will “have a controlling interest in the [transportation development district],” the FAA said in a statement. The airport would then be “under the control of a public agency,” allowing the TDD “to assume and carry out the obligations required of a sponsor in the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program project application and grant agreements.”
When Branson Airport was in the planning stages, the private developers forecast that debt repayment would flow from an increase in tourism in the area. The public-private partnership between Branson Airport LLC and Taney County has not lived up to the rosy projections despite a jump in