Wood BOE awards sale of bonds to JPMorgan
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PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Board of Education met in special session Tuesday afternoon where they approved a resolution authorizing and awarding the sale of their 2023 bonds to JPMorgan Securities LLC.
"We are really excited to say that this is a tremendous bid," Joe Nassif, municipal advisor and managing director at Piper Sandler, said.
Nassif said the 3.958943% interest rate JP Morgan offered was well below the approved 4.5% and the lowest of bids from companies such as TD Securities, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, RW Baird and KeyBank.
Nassif said on top of the $60.85 million JPMorgan is also going to bid a premium of $1,374,149.67.
"By closing you will receive total funds of $62,224,149.67," Nassif said. "So that means another $1.37 million for building schools and your improvement project, that goes above what was initially budgeted."
Nassif said this benefits voters and the district in two ways. One is saving them $1.4 million in reduced taxes with the rate coming in under 4.5%, and secondly, by getting the added $1.37 million in premium proceeds.
Nassif said there will be a "good faith" wire of money by JPMorgan to United Bank and in three weeks they will close this transaction.
"And the remaining amount of funds, over $60 million, will be wired on that date," Nassif said. "So, that first week of December you will have $62,224,000 plus in the bank."
Tom Pearcy, bond counsel and attorney at Bowles Rice LLP, talked to the board about putting the remainder of the purchase price into an account with the West Virginia Board of Treasury Investments. He said they have great investment options with the West Virginia Government Money Market Pool being the main one.
"Which will allow the 'project fund,' as we're calling this, to earn significant interest earnings during the temporary period," Pearcy said. "That will result in even more money available to the board to complete these very important projects."
Michael Erb, communication coordinator for WCS, said those projects include building three new schools, safety projects throughout the district and athletic facility improvements.