State municipal-bond banks in Indiana, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire plan to issue about $190 million in debt this week, as smaller communities seek to take advantage of 10-year interest rates near a six-week low.
The move is expected to save $8 million to $9 million over the life of the bonds.
The Indianapolis-based hospital system plans to sell $228.2 million in bonds this week to refinance existing debt and pay to finish construction of its Saxony hospital in Fishers, set to open late this year.
Municipal bond manager Josh Gonze of Thornburg Investment Management in Santa Fe, N.M., picked the $80 million bond on Carmel's Palladium concert hall as one of the six best in the nation.
The city of Indianapolis went to the bond market last month to sell $97 million in debt for the $155 million North of South hotel and retail project near the Eli Lilly and Co. campus.
Inflation is a sinister sort of tax that confiscates wealth. Bonds will lose value in an inflationary environment as interest rates rise.
State lawmakers are exploring the idea of paying back more than $2 billion in federal debt for unemployment insurance by issuing tax-exempt bonds.
Interest rates on municipal bonds have ticked up in the last two months to pre-recession levels as investors have pulled their money from bond funds in droves. That pattern has begun, gradually, to reverse, but the higher rates could add to the cost of issuing debt for pending city projects.
A strong balance sheet, experienced management, and conservative debt and investment policies contributed to the strong rating.
Wall Street bankers for decades sold municipalities like Indianapolis on debt instruments called swaps as a safe way to reduce
borrowing costs and hedge against rising interest rates. In reality, the swaps were complicated bets that relied
on misguided assumptions, and taxpayers paid.
Clarian is planning to spend $1.7 billion in the next five years on capital projects, half of that going to its downtown Indianapolis
campuses.
The Health & Hospital Corp. of Marion County got good news in its first round of borrowing to finance a new Wishard
hospital: The cost is less than expected.
Indianapolis has fared better than some airports in terms of declining revenue, with passengers down
about 10 percent for much of the year and revenue off 16 percent at one point.
Fitch and other rating agencies are concerned that the phase-in of property tax caps will further strain the city’s finances.
Among defendants named in a Missouri lawsuit against investment firm Stifel Nicolaus and Co. is Stifel Managing Director Jeffrey
Cohen, who is based in the company’s Indianapolis
office.
Without fresh capital â?? or loosened debt obligations â?? Carmel-based Conseco could find itself in bankruptcy or looking
for a buyer or both.
The Capital Improvement Board’s $43 million in debts must be settled soon, or the entity may not be able to survive.
A large number of investors are so fearful these days that they have flocked to the safest securities, pushing down interest
rates to virtually nothing.
Indianapolis-area hospitals have suffered a double whammy of spiking interest rates on their bonds and heavy losses in their
investment portfolios and are trying to save cash any way they can.
The debt strategy Gov. Mitch Daniels’ top financial officials developed to save the state money on major projects like
Lucas Oil Stadium has turned sour.
