ATLANTA - Atlanta's finance director late Wednesday presented to council members plans to add a $329 million refunding component to the city's Hartsfield International Airport bond issue expected to be priced by a syndicate led by J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. in March.
Finance director Judith Blackwell yesterday said the plans submitted to the city's finance committee outline the airport's complete $5.4 billion capital plan, as well as how Atlanta intends to borrow for the aggressive expansion effort.
By adding the refunding component to the $600 million new money, the city will be able to modernize its 1977 bond indenture, she said. Blackwell explained that officials want to retool the documents to allow the airport the flexibility to sell variable-rate debt, possibly substitute reserve fund dollars with a surety, and perhaps issue commercial paper.
Still, the airport will need some help from state lawmakers if it wants authorization to sell short-term instruments such as commercial paper, as Georgia law currently prohibits general government issuers form doing so, she said.
Last year, the city issued a whopping $1.2 billion water-sewer revenue deal, which enabled it to modernize those documents, and Blackwell said Atlanta is looking to take a similar tack now.
"We're talking about an indenture that has been around for about a quarter century. It will give us better flexibility with our cash management," she said. The finance team has not yet determined which outstanding bonds the city should refund.
Jackson Securities Inc. and Lehman Brothers are on board as co-senior managers, and J.P. Morgan will run the book, Blackwell said. A selling group has not been selected.
The expansion plans feature a fifth runway, terminal renovations, and a car rental center, she said. Substantial work is also planned for support facilities and airport access projects. The complete expansion at Hartsfield, which is the nation's busiest airport, is expected to be complete in 2010, Blackwell said.
