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City bonds get favorable rating from Moody's

Posted: Oct. 4, 2012

Moody's Investors Services report image

Several Port St. Lucie bonds have earned favorable ratings from Moody's Investors Service, indicating the city is financially sound and managing its debt properly. The ratings include bonds sold to finance construction of the Digital Domain facility and were issued after that company filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Moody's Investors Service is a leading provider of credit ratings, research, and risk analysis. Investors worldwide rely on the company for financial information, and their high rating tells investors that the city can be relied on to pay its debts.

Moody's Investors Service assigned a Aa3 rating with a stable outlook to the City of Port St. Lucie's $14.9 million Special Assessment Refunding Bonds, Series 2012A (Tesoro Special Assessment District). According to Moody’s, a rating of Aa means the bonds “are judged to be of high quality and are subject to very low credit risk.”

In addition, Moody's has affirmed the Aa2 rating on the city's $85.4 million of outstanding general obligation debt (Series 2005 and 2006), the Aa3 on $40.2 million of outstanding certificates of participation (Series 2008), the Aa3 rating on $64 million of non-ad valorem backed (debt service reserve fund replenishment) Research Facility Lease Revenue Bonds, the Aa3 rating on $39.9 million on non-ad valorem backed (DSRF replenishment) Lease Revenue Bonds (Wyndcrest Project), and the Aa3 rating on $30.8 million of non-ad valorem backed special assessment (City Center Assessment District). The outlooks are stable.

The current offering is secured by special assessments levied within the Tesoro special assessment district. In addition, the bonds benefit from the city's covenant to budget and appropriate legally available non-ad valorem revenues, if necessary, to pay debt service on the bonds. Proceeds from this issue will be used to refinance outstanding maturities of the city's 2003B special assessment bonds for an estimated net present value savings of 15 percent of refunded principal and is expected to shorten the final maturity to 2019 from 2023.

Read the full report from Moody’s Investors Service.

For more information, contact:
Ed Cunningham|
Communications Director
City of Port St. Lucie
(772) 873-5219