Date: April 29, 2004

Commission chooses bond underwriting team

George K. Baum & Company and A.G. Edwards were select to lead the Missouri Housing Development Commission’s bond managing underwriting team for the next three years during the Commission’s April 16 meeting. The firms were selected as Co-Senior Managing Underwriters by a unanimous vote of the Commission.

MHDC issued almost $258.8 million in single family mortgage revenue bonds and $57.6 million in multifamily tax-exempt bonds in 2003. Standard & Poor’s recently upgraded the issuer credit rating on MHDC from ‘AA’ to ‘AA+’ in a report released by the agency March 31.

Banc of America Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Edward Jones, Loop Capital Markets, Oppenheimer & Co., Inc., and Merrill Lynch were selected as Co-Managers.

Additionally, four firms were chosen as part of a selling group including Piper Jaffray, Stern Brothers & Co., UMB and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc.

Missouri Housing received 25 proposals in response to the Request for Proposals. Each submission was reviewed and evaluated by staff and MHDC’s financial advisors, CSG Advisors and Columbia Capital Management LLC. Firms were evaluated on their qualifications and experience, sales and distribution capability, strategies for funding single family and multifamily programs, operation of underwriting syndicate, fee schedule and computer analytic capability..

Special capabilities sought by the Commission included a firm’s presence in the state of Missouri, their national perspective in the housing bond field, minority or woman owned firms, and those firms with a history of sales of Missouri bonds.
 

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