The Senior Lien Series 2023A & B (Social Bonds) bond proceeds are being used to finance certain Chicago Recovery Plan Projects (“CRP”) on behalf of the City of Chicago (the “City”). The Senior Lien Series 2023A & B Bonds mark the inaugural Social Bond issuance for the Corporation/City. The Senior Lien 2023C and Second Lien Series 2023A & B bond proceeds were used to finance a tender for and refinance certain outstanding City of Chicago General Obligation Bonds.

The Senior Lien 2023 Bonds are rated AA- by S&P with a positive outlook, AA by Fitch with a positive outlook, and AAA by Kroll with a stable outlook. The Second Lien 2023 Bonds are rated AA- by S&P with a positive outlook, AA- by Fitch with a stable outlook, and AA+ by Kroll with a stable outlook. The Corporation’s marketing included wide distribution of the POC, thorough marketing by the syndicate and large selling group, an online roadshow, 3 one-on-one calls with investors, in-person investor meetings in NYC, Boston, and Chicago, and advertising through various mediums. The Senior Lien Series 2023A (Social Bonds)and Taxable Series 2023B (Social Bonds)had a retail order period on January 18 for Chicago and National retail investors, giving priority to Chicago and Illinois residents. s a result, 8% of the bond sales went to Chicago residents and 24% went to Illinois investors.

Overall, the tax-exempt piece (Senior Lien 2023A, 2023C, Second Lien 2023A) received $1.1 billion in orders, including $154.4 million in retail orders, leading to an aggregate oversubscription level of 3.5x. The taxable piece (Senior Lien 2023B, Second Lien 2023B) received $1.1 billion in orders, including $21.5 million in retail orders, leading to an oversubscription of 2.7x. Cumulatively, SWS helped bring in $176.4 million of orders across the five series, of which $43.2 million were retail priority orders on the tax-exempt portion and $105.5 million in group net priority orders during the institutional order period. SWS put in $27.2 million in group net priority orders on the taxable piece. 30 new investors participated in the transaction, including some high-grade funds such as insurers and corporate cash investors, and attracted interest from 12 ESG Funds. The Series 2023A (Social Bonds)saw bifurcated maturities in 2030, 2033 and 2034 to add additional 5% coupon bonds and the 2032 maturity 3% coupon changed to a 5% coupon. From Pre-Marketing to Repricing, maturities for each of the tax-exempt series saw spread decreases of 2-4 bps.

Of particular note, the Social Bonds saw a spread benefit of 3-5 bps compared to the non-Social Bonds under the same lien on overlapping comparable maturities. For the Taxable Senior Lien Series 2023B bonds, 6 of the 10 maturities saw spread decreases ranging from 2 to 25 basis points from Pre-Marketing to Final Pricing. Overall, the combined refunding portion of the transaction achieved $55.19 million in PV savings (9.35% of refunded par). The overall combined transaction achieved an all-in TIC of 4.39%.