The University of Kentucky Builds with Bonds Every year, hundreds of colleges ar
ID: 2744403 • Letter: T
Question
The University of Kentucky Builds with Bonds
Every year, hundreds of colleges around the country build new buildings. Where do most schools get the money for these expensive projects? From long-term bonds.
The University of Kentucky (UK) has issued “revenue” bonds to build buildings on the 23,000 student Lexington campus, and on 14 community colleges throughout the state. These bonds pledge the school’s revenues as collateral to guarantee payment of the bonds. At one time the outstanding debt on the Lexington campus buildings was $137 million. The total debt on the community college buildings equaled $121 million. The bonds generally have maturities ranging from 10 to 20 years.
Additional “guarantees” for bond purchasers are the ratings given the bonds by professional rating agencies. Their bonds are rated “AA-“ by Standard & Poor’s Corporation, which is well above investment grade. Thee is always a very good market for the bonds.
People in Kentucky identify very closely with the university. Even though the bonds are rated “AA-” they trade at AAA (the top bond rating) because they are so easy to sell.
One advantage for investors: the bonds’ interest revenue id exempt from federal income tax and from state tax for in-state investors. So, an issue offering 6% is the equivalent of 10% to those individuals in the top tax bracket. Many investors feel very confident in buying the bonds, because it is inconceivable to them that there would ever e a default.
1) The University of Kentucky’s bonds are rated “AA-“ by Standard & Poor’s and A1 by Moody’s Investor Service. Why is it important to the University of Kentucky that its bonds have a high bond rating?
2) Why does the state use bonds to finance the buildings rather than taking the funds out of general revenues?
3) Explain the meaning to the tax-exempt status of the University of Kentucky bonds. What does it mean to say that “a recent issue offering 6% is the equivalent of 10% to those individuals in the top tax bracket?”
Explanation / Answer
1) Bond ratings gives the information about risk, that is, the chance that the issuer will be unable to make interest payments or repay the principal amount. The riskier the bond the lower its rating. Bonds with more A's are less riskier then the bonds with lower A's and the highest rating is AAA, AAA+ .
2) There is a fixed interest rate for the term of the loan. So budgeting is simplified knowing your principal payments and interest payments never change in the life of the bond.
Further funds are more easily accessable.
Prepayment is not penalized, we can use excess cash to pay the loan.
For Non-Profit companies, it is convineint .
It is issued to meet for a specific purpose.
by issuing bonds our general available revenues can not distrub.
3) Generally interest on bonds are taxable beause when paying interest on bonds the company can deduct interest expenses from its profit and loss account, but in the case of University there is an exemption given to those individuals for paying taxes. In that case if interest offered @ 6% is equivalent of 10% to the receipient of the individuals.
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