Public Finance

On May 17, 2022, Loop Capital Markets (“Loop” or the “Firm”) served as Senior Manager on Princeton University’s (the “University”) $300 million Taxable Bonds, Series 2022 (Corporate CUSIP). The Bonds were rated Aaa/AAA by Moody’s and S&P. The Firm also served as Co-Senior Manager on the University’s tax-exempt issuance through the New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority (totaling $300MM), which priced the same day.

The University elected to issue the taxable bonds in a long-dated maturity and issue the tax-exempt bonds in 5-year and 10-year maturities, and Loop assisted the University and its Financial Advisor to develop a Plan of Finance that best captured current market dynamics (e.g., tax-exempt-to-taxable ratios), debt management objectives, and Index Eligibility benefit. Broader Fixed Income Markets had a softer tone leading up to pricing due to concerns around inflation, slowing growth, and an increasingly hawkish FOMC, leading to investors increasingly focusing on credit quality, with greater appetite for high-grade names such as the University. Ultimately, Loop and the syndicate generated over $1 billion in orders and was able to successfully execute a transaction that resulted in a yield of 4.201% to the University.

Immediately following the release of the Preliminary Offering Memorandum, our salesforce and the syndicate actively began the pre-marketing process and contacted a broad range of prospective investors. Loop’s team compiled an investor analysis identifying the University’s top corporate buyers and targeting the top national higher education taxable bond holders. The Firm also facilitated a one-on-one call with an existing investor and the University that led to a large order which helped drive leverage in the order book.

A total of 57 accounts participated in the transaction, resulting in over $1 billion of orders, or 3.5x oversubscription. Participating accounts included a variety of investor types, including Insurance Companies, Bond Funds, Prop/Trading Accounts, Money Managers, Investment Advisors, ETFs and Banks. The transaction also had a strong reception from International Investors. The Firm targeted Insurance Companies during pre-marketing as likely to participate strongly in the transaction and these investors ultimately composed 43% of the initial order book. Due to strong subscription levels, the Firm was able to tighten spreads by 10 basis points to achieve a final spread of +100 bps.