New York, October 12, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned Aaa rating to the proposed $100,685,000 Missouri State Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA) Taxable Water Pollution Control and Drinking Water Refunding Revenue Bonds (State Revolving Funds Programs) Series 2020B. Moody's also maintains Aaa rating on EIERA's outstanding bonds issued under the 2004 and 2010 Master Trust Agreements (MTAs). The outlook on the ratings is stable.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The Aaa rating reflects the high 40.9% default tolerance of the 2010 Amended and Restated Master Trust Agreement (MTA) with substantial over-collateralization of assets to debt, including approximately $236 million in trustee-held reserves. Additional factors include the large and diverse pool of clean water and drinking water loans with favorable credit characteristics, the strong legal structure supporting the bonds and solid management of the program.
RATING OUTLOOK
The stable outlook reflects the sufficiency of projected revenues to meet full and timely bond debt service over the life of the bonds and our expectation that management will maintain a strong financial position for the program.
FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OF THE RATING
- Not applicable
FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO A DOWNGRADE OF THE RATING
- Significant decline in program's default tolerance and or deterioration of loan portfolio's credit quality and/or diversity
- Substantial increase in single borrower and top five borrower concentration
LEGAL SECURITY
The Series 2020B bonds will be issued under the Amended and Restated Master Trust Agreement (MTA), which is structured primarily as a cash flow model, but benefits from certain available reserve releases on a parity basis to all Leveraged Bonds outstanding under the MTA. The Series 2020B bonds are limited obligations of the Authority.
The 2020B State Match Bonds are secured under the Indenture and the MTA as follows: (1) on a parity basis with other State Match Bonds, by a priority pledge of the interest component of the participant repayments made by participants received by the master trustee, (2) on a priority basis, by investment earnings on the 2020B Reserve Fund and (3) with respect to the drinking water portion of the 2020B State Match Bonds only, on a priority basis, by investment earnings on the drinking water portion of the 2020B State Match Bonds only, on a priority basis, by investment earnings on the drinking water state match bond subsidy fund.
The 2020B Leveraged Bonds are secured under the indenture and the MTA as follows: (1) on a parity basis with other Leveraged Bonds, by a priority pledge of the principal component of the participant repayments made by the participants received by the master trustee, (2) on a subordinate basis to the State Match Bonds, by the interest component of the participant repayments made by clean water participants and drinking water participants received by the master trustee, (3) on a parity basis with all leveraged bonds outstanding under the MTA, by the portion of the indenture receipts constituting reserve release amounts, (4) on a subordinate basis to the 2020B State Match Bonds, investment earnings on the reserve fund, and (5) on a priority basis, remaining amounts on deposit in the reserve fund after releases of the reserve release amounts.
USE OF PROCEEDS
The Series 2020B bonds will current refund all outstanding 2004 MTA bonds as well as a portion of the Series 2010B Bonds. Bond proceeds will also be used to advance refund a portion of Series 2011A Bonds and a portion of the Authority's 2015A Bonds. Upon the issuance of the Series 2020B Bonds EIERA will terminate the 2004 MTA, however, all participants under the former MTA will continue to be obligated under their respective pledged participant obligation.
PROFILE
The Missouri Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA) is a body corporate and politic and a governmental instrumentality environmental finance agency that was established in 1972. The purpose of EIERA is to finance loans for clean water and drinking water projects in the state of Missouri. The EIERA issues the bonds that support the two SRF programs.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) administers the Clean Water and Drinking Water SRF programs, including monitoring the projects, conducting environmental reviews, approving loan disbursements requests, and reviewing annual participant audits.
METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in this rating was Public Sector Pool Programs and Financings Methodology published in April 2020 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1171420. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.
For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
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Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.
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