DFW International Airport Successfully Prices Refunding Bonds

Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport made a successful trip to the bond market last week, pricing more than $433 million worth of bonds for the purpose of refunding existing debt with more favorable interest rates. DFW Airport achieved a true interest cost (TIC) of 4.026% on the deal, meaning the Airport should achieve a total savings of $96.5 million.

”We are very pleased with the results of the pricing for our 2012B bond sale,” said Chris Poinsatte, chief financial officer for DFW Airport. ‘We were significantly oversubscribed in the short and long end, allowing us to lower rates and achieve significant savings. It seems clear that ongoing issues within the airline industry had no impact on our bond pricing.”

The 2012B bond sale will be refunding portions of five previous bond issuances, including 2000A, 2001A, 2002B, 2002C and 2003A. The previous bonds cover some of the debt for design and construction of the Airport’s Skylink people mover system, which opened in 2005. The new bonds will reach maturity in 2035.

The bond pricing took place on Thursday morning, February 16 in New York City. The bond sale will close on March 1.

Handling the bond sale for DFW Airport are the following:

•       JPMorgan – Senior Manager and book runner

•       Merrill Lynch – Co-Senior

•       Loop Capital – Co-Manager

•       Cabrera Capital Markets – Co-Manager

•       Stifel Nicolaus – Co-Manager

•       RBC Capital – Co-Manager