Siebert Cisneros Shank served as joint-senior manager on San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s Series 2019 Bond transaction which priced on July 29 and 30, 2019 (rated Aaa/AAA/NR).

The Series 2019 Bonds were used to finance improvements to BART facilities authorized under Measure RR and the System Renewal Program, finance improvements to BART facilities authorized under Measure AA and the Earthquake Safety Program, and refund the outstanding Measure AA 2013 Series C Bonds.

As BART has obtained a programmatic certification under the Climate Bonds Initiative through its Low Carbon Transport standard, the financing was designated as “Green Bonds”.
Investor outreach strategies, which included an early EMMA notice several weeks before pricing, an online investor presentation, and one-on-one investor calls with ESG investors, gave the District the potential to reach a larger investor universe.

To ensure that the couponing structure of the tax-exempt series complied with California’s legal limitation on the original issue premium, SCS marketed the tax-exempt series with 3% and 4% coupon serial bonds from 2037 to 2039, a 4% coupon term bond in 2044, and a 3% coupon term bond in 2049.

As the Fed was expected to announce its first interest rate cut in nearly a decade on July 31st, the District commenced a retail order period on July 29th, which garnered enough orders from professional retail accounts to completely sell all of the serial maturities. On the following day, July 30th, significant demand from institutional investors allowed the bonds to be oversubscribed by more than 3.5x, with some maturities producing orders well in excess of that.

As a result, the taxable refunding series produced PV savings that were higher than BART’s bond policy threshold of 10% of refunded par. In addition, the District was able to achieve an overall cost of financing for $643.5 million of bonds with a 30-year final maturity that was below 3%.