Today In The Markets

San Antonio’s CPS Energy will head to the municipal bond market next month with a big debt sale involving a tender offer and improved outlooks for two of its credit ratings. Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings, which both rated the upcoming $1.05 billion electric and gas systems revenue bond deal AA-minus, revised their outlooks

Illinois needs to address questions surrounding its Tier 2 pension benefits, and while directly fixing Tier 2’s alleged failure to meet the IRS’s minimum safe harbor standard would be credit neutral, enhancing Tier 2 benefits more broadly or erasing the distinction between Tier 1 and Tier 2 could result in a downgrade, Fitch Ratings said

U.S. public-private partnership activity weakened last year but the longer-term trend of a rising number of P3s held strong while the future boasts a healthy project pipeline and infrastructure funds looking to invest. The southeast region remained the frontrunner in the space, with big-ticket projects queued up in Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee. Availability-payment P3s remained

Texas lawmakers held a marathon hearing last week to grill public university leaders on their compliance with a 2023 state law banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices at their schools or face financial consequences.  Ahead of the hearing, Republican State Sen. Brandon Creighton, who chairs the chamber’s Subcommittee on Higher Education, warned higher education

Municipal bonds tied to Destiny USA, the biggest shopping mall in New York state, will probably default, just not imminently, according to Fitch Ratings.  Fitch raised its rating Monday on about $260 million of municipal bonds, backed by payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, from C — the lowest category before default — to CC. The debt, issued to expand