Downtown Savannah Authority (GA)
Municipal
$67,415,000
Revenue Bonds, Series 2020
(Chatham County Judicial Complex Project)
July 23, 2020
SOLE MANAGER
As a result of SWS’ extensive pre-marketing and sales efforts, the transaction garnered $353 million in total orders
The Bonds were rated “Aa1” by Moody’s and “AA+” by S&P, reflecting an upgrade from “Aa2” by Moody’s due to Chatham County, GA’s (the “County”) stable and improving local economy in the broad and diverse Savannah metropolitan area. Proceeds from the Bonds will be used to acquire, construct and equip a new four-story judicial complex adjacent to the existing courthouse in Savannah’s downtown historic district, to improve judicial operations of the County.
The Bonds are limited obligations of the Downtown Savannah Authority (the “Authority”), with principal and interest payable solely from certain amounts by the County to the Authority under an Intergovernmental Lease Contract. Although the full faith and credit of the County are pledged under the lease, the County anticipates utilizing receipts of the County’s 1% special purpose local option sales tax (“SPLOST”) which is expected to generate approx. $400 million to finance capital and infrastructure projects throughout the County over the next 6 years. To accommodate potential SPLOST revenues and create future redemption flexibility, the transaction was structured with a 6-year par call.
SWS developed an investor presentation to educate investors on the strong credit of the County. The investor presentation received a total of 44 views, of which 19 were from investors; 5 of those investors ultimately placed orders on the transaction.
As a result of SWS’ extensive pre-marketing and sales efforts, the transaction garnered $353 million in total orders from 22 different institutional investors resulting in an aggregate oversubscription of 5.2x and 3.9x to 7.2x based on priority orders. At repricing, SWS’ desk recommended lowering yields across all maturities including 7 bps in 2027, 5 bps in 2028, 6 bps in 2029, 5 bps in 2030, 6 bps in 2031 and 8 bps in 2032.