HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority has issued nearly $600 million of debt this year, after its recent $58 million sale of mortgage finance program bonds.
Last week, the Rocky Hill-based authority sold $39.5 million in tax-exempt and $18.7 million in taxable bonds.
"Another issuance, another successful sale for Connecticut Housing," said vice president for finance Hazim Taib.
CHFA, concerned about a possible interest-rate announcement by the Federal Reserve, held its tax-exempt sale on Nov. 3. "We picked Monday for the sale to be in front of the wave," said Taib. CHFA was oversubscribed by 1.6 times, receiving $63.9 million of orders. That amount included $14.2 million from Connecticut investors, retail and institutional.
For any bonds 10 years in, CHFA was able to improve the rate by 5 basis points. For longer bonds, orders were lower due to the projected increase in the interest rate. Still, said Taib, the 2024 maturity for the Series 2014F-1 bonds ended at a spread to Municipal Market Data of 65, or 2.75%. By comparison, he said, the 2024 maturity spread on the Series 2014C to MMD was 68, or 2.95%.
"While the overall orders were low when compared to prior issuances for tax exempt, we were still able to accelerate the sale and got it done within a day," said Taib. "This is due to our name, ratings and the sales team."
Citi led the underwriting team.
CHFA's taxable sale the following day was more than 1.95 times oversubscribed. It received $36.3 million of orders. "Based on the guidance and interest we got on Monday, we were able to reduce 5 basis points on our long bonds from more than 130 basis points to more than 125 basis points over its comparable Treasury bond," said Taib. "We completed the sale within two hours."
