On March 22, 2022, Loop Capital Markets was mandated as an active co-manager on a four-tranche $5 billion senior unsecured notes offering for Lowe’s Companies, Inc. The bonds are rated Baa1/BBB+ across 5-, 10-, 30- and 40-year tranches.
Use of proceeds are earmarked for general corporate purposes.
Earlier this month, Loop Capital Markets served as the Senior Manager on the City of Pittsburgh’s (the “City”) $51.1 million General Obligation Bonds, Series of 2022 (the “Bonds”). The Bonds were rated AA- (Stable) / AA- (Stable) by S&P and Fitch, respectively.
Bond proceeds were used to finance new money capital needs of the City. The Bonds had a maturity structure, comprised of serial maturities from 2023-2042 and generated an All-In TIC of 3.24%. The Bonds were structured with an 8-year par call and 5.00% coupons. As part of the financing, Fitch upgraded the City’s Bonds rating outlook from negative to stable based on the City’s stable financial performance and gradually rebuilding reserves. The strength of the City’s General Obligation credit also reflected very strong operating performance evidenced by a high reserve cushion and its significant independent legal ability to increase revenues.
The Firm entered the order period after the release of February’s CPI data, which came in line with the expectation of 7.9% YoY increase and as inflationary concerns in the U.S. reached a new 40-year high. The Bonds were structured to achieve increasing stated yield and yield-to-maturity for each maturity in compliance with the Pennsylvania DCED Local Government Unit Debt Act. The Firm’s robust marketing efforts resulted in over 64% of the bonds (or $32.8 million) being sold to professional retail investors.
A total of 29 investors participated in the transaction, including separately managed accounts, bond funds, money managers, insurance companies, broker-dealers, and arbitrage accounts. The Firm generated nearly $170 million in total orders and achieved oversubscription levels of 3.3x. Due to strong subscription levels, the Firm was able to lower yields by up to 4 basis points depending on maturity, despite benchmark MMD rates on the day being higher by 5 to 7 bps throughout the curve. Despite challenging market conditions amid a rising interest rate environment and ahead of the FOMC meeting on March 15 and 16 (in which the Fed will begin a series of rate increases this year), the City achieved the best pricing results for its Bonds.
On March 10, 2022, Loop Capital Markets served as a co-manager on a four-tranche $6 billion senior unsecured fixed/floating rate notes offering for Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. The bonds are rated A2/BBB+ across 2- and 6-year tranches.
Use of proceeds are earmarked for general corporate purposes.
On March 10, 2022, Loop Capital Markets acted as a co-manager on a $1.5 billion senior unsecured notes offering for MPLX LP. The 30-year bond is rated BAA2/BBB/BBB.
Use of proceeds are earmarked to repay outstanding borrowings under a loan agreement with MPC Investment LLC and for general corporate purposes.
On March 9, 2022, Loop Capital Markets served as Joint Bookrunner and ESG Coordinator on the University of Michigan’s (the “University”) $2 billion General Revenue Bonds, Series 2022AB (Taxable) (the “Bonds”). The Bonds were rated Aaa (Stable) / AAA (Stable) by Moody’s and S&P, respectively.
The structure of the Bonds consisted of three bullet maturities including $300 million in Green Bonds with a 30-year maturity and make-whole call (par call six months prior to maturity), $500 million with a 30-year maturity and a make-whole call (par call six months prior to maturity), and $1.2 billion with a 100-year maturity and a make-whole call (par call six months prior to maturity). The century bond is the largest ever sold in the higher education space to-date. The Firm’s salesforce generated $117 million of priority orders from Tier-1 bond funds and insurance companies.
The Bonds will finance capital projects and assist the University in creating a central bank model for financing its capital projects. Additionally, the Series 2022B Bonds (designated as Green Bonds) will finance Green Buildings (LEED Silver or Platinum certification), Renewable Energy (geothermal heating and cooling facility), Energy Efficiency (development of a Revolving Energy Fund to finance projects across the campuses), and Clean Transportation (electric buses).
With input from the Firm, the University opted for a third-party verification of the Green Bonds due to perceived investor preference and the complex nature of the Green Bonds that are more expansive and unique than most. Given procurement rules, the University needed to select a third-party verifier through a competitive request for proposal. The Firm assisted in this process by providing examples of request for proposals for third-party verifiers, reviewing the RFP before being released, coordinating with each third-party verifier in the municipal market to provide the University with direct contacts, exploring scoring metrics to consider when selecting a third-party verifier, including higher education experience and timing of the final report. Ultimately, the University selected Kestrel as its third-party verifier and the Firm was actively involved during due diligence and crafting the verification report.
In addition, the Firm worked with the University and its disclosure counsel providing feedback on ESG disclosures for the offering document based on recent ESG transaction of comparable higher education institutions. The Firm worked with the University and the other joint bookrunner to review and provide feedback on the investor presentation, which included two slides on the Green Bond designation and the University’s commitment to sustainability and carbon neutrality.
On March 8, 2022, Loop Capital Markets served as a co-manager on a two-tranche $750 million FMB offering for Commonwealth Edison Company. The bonds are rated A1/A across 10- and 30-year tranches.
Use of proceeds are earmarked to repay outstanding commercial paper obligations and for general corporate purposes.
On March 7, 2022, Loop Capital Markets was mandated as an active co-manager on a three-tranche $1.9 billion senior unsecured fixed/floating rate notes offering for Bank of Nova Scotia. The bonds are rated A2/A- across 2- and 5-year tranches.
Use of proceeds are earmarked for general corporate purposes.
On March 3, 2022, Loop Capital Markets served as a co-manager on a two-tranche $2.3 billion senior unsecured notes offering for HSBC Holdings plc. The bonds are rated A3/A- across 4-year tranches.
Use of proceeds are earmarked for general corporate purposes.
On March 3, 2022, Loop Capital Markets served as a co-manager on a three-tranche $2 billion senior unsecured notes offering for Mondelez International, Inc. The bonds are rated BAA1/BBB across 2-, 5- and 10-year tranches.
Use of proceeds are earmarked for general corporate purposes including the redemption of the $1 billion notes due in July 2022 and to fund the concurrent tender offer.
On March 2, 2022, Loop Capital Markets acted as a co-manager on a $550 million senior unsecured bond offering for Nasdaq, Inc. The 30-year bond is rated BAA2/BBB+.
Use of proceeds are earmarked to reduce indebtedness and for other general corporate purposes.
