The national Deal of the Year winner will be selected from the ten finalists at the annual gala, which will also celebrate two winners of the Freda Johnson Award for Trailblazing Women in Public Finance
NEW YORK, Nov. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The Bond Buyer, Arizent’s essential resource serving the municipal finance community, has announced its 2022 Deal of the Year award finalists. This marks the 21st year the program has recognized outstanding achievements in municipal finance, and the 12th year the Deal of the Year event will include the presentation of the Freda Johnson Award for Trailblazing Women in Public Finance.
The Deal of the Year finalists span ten categories: five awards in regional areas and five in additional categories. The winning deals helped deliver relief to a battered electric utility provider, assisted a school district in Arizona’s Navajo Nation and helped a city manage a dwindling water supply, among other projects:
SOUTHEAST REGION: Louisiana Utilities Restoration Corp.’s $3.2 billion offering sought low-cost financing to give relief to a battered electric utility provider and its ratepayers.
FAR WEST REGION: The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority’s $1.94 billion transaction pays for the replacement of Terminal 1, roadway and parking improvements and a new administration building.
NORTHEAST REGION: The District of Columbia’s $309 million long-term P3 agreement with Plenary Infrastructure DC is the nation’s largest urban streetlight modernization project to use the public-private partnership model.
MIDWEST REGION: The city of Joliet, Illinois’ $76.6 million offering kicked off the first leg of financing of the city’s preliminary 100-year agreement with Chicago to purchase treated Lake Michigan water to stave off a looming drinking-water crisis.
SOUTHWEST REGION: A $21.7 million deal for Apache County, Arizona’s Window Rock Unified School District No. 8, which serves more than 390 square miles of the Navajo Nation in Arizona.
ESG/GREEN FINANCING: The commonwealth of Massachusetts’ nearly $2.7 billion social bond deal — the largest social bond deal yet in the ESG space of the muni market — repaid federal dollars for the commonwealth’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund for benefits given to people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FINANCING: The deal financed a portion of the $2.75 billion Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project, a public-private partnership between Red River Valley Alliance and the Metro Flood Diversion Authority to reduce local flooding risk.
INNOVATIVE FINANCING: The Alabama Federal Aid Highway Finance Authority’s $1.5 billion offering introduces a new credit structure that helped the Authority garner credit ratings that remain among the highest in the nation.
HEALTH CARE FINANCING: The University of Louisville Health’s $411 million deal helped fund their critical mission to reach its underserved community.
SMALL ISSUER FINANCING: Gallatin County, Montana’s $65 million transaction helped fund its Bozeman Fiber project, which brings lightning-fast internet speeds to an area underserved by internet service providers.
“This year’s lineup is reflective of the full range of communities and public purposes this market comprises,” said Mike Scarchilli, Editor in Chief of The Bond Buyer. “The deals recognized here embody the creativity and resourcefulness of this industry, brought to bear on projects that advance the infrastructure and quality of life in the nation’s municipalities.”
All award winners will be honored at an invitation-only ceremony at Guastavino’s in New York City on Dec. 6. The winner of the Deal of the Year award will be announced at the close of the gala. For the 12th year, the Deal of the Year ceremony will also include the presentation of the Freda Johnson Award for Trailblazing Women in Public Finance. This year marks the eighth in which the organization is honoring two public finance professionals; one from the public sector and one from the private. The 2022 honorees are Deborah Goldberg, treasurer of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Emilie Ninan, public finance partner at Ballard Spahr and co-chair of the firm’s finance department.
Along with Ninan and Goldberg, whose awards will be presented by Freda Johnson, 12 other honorees from the public and private sectors will be recognized as Trailblazing Women in Public Finance by the Northeast Women in Public Finance at the Dec. 6 gala.
The full list of Deal of the Year winners and profiles of the transactions can be found here.
About The Bond Buyer
Since 1891, The Bond Buyer has empowered issuers, investors and other municipal finance professionals to navigate the complexities of policy, regulation, market activity, infrastructure, public/private partnerships and more. Across its journalism, events, research and benchmarking, The Bond Buyer provides insight into the most relevant topics — from ESG to innovative deal structures. As the only independent resource serving the complete municipal finance community, The Bond Buyer’s authoritative content connects leaders online, in person and in print every day.
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Media Contact
Michael Scarchilli, Arizent, 212-803-8500, [email protected]