Auburn, Calif. – The Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) announced that it has completed the refinancing of approximately $26 million of its debt to take advantage of lower interest rates available in the market.
The competitive sale of bonds resulted in eight bids from national and regional securities firms.
JP Morgan Securities was the winning bidder and purchased the bonds with an average interest rate of 2.51 percent. The refinancing resulted in approximately $300,000 in annual debt service savings for the Agency for the next 21 years, or $4.4 million in current dollars.
As part of the refinancing process, PCWA was required to obtain updated credit ratings from both Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s), two of the primary credit rating agencies that rate municipal bonds. Moody’s affirmed the Agency’s Aa2 rating, while S&P improved the Agency’s rating from AA+ to AAA, the highest rating possible. S&P recognized the strong financial operations of PCWA in giving the upgrade.