Francy Ronayne
617-367-6900 

TIMOTHY CAHILL

TREASURER

The original plan of sale was to sell $300 million in bonds to individual investors over a two-day retail only order period, followed by a competitive sale to institutional investors on Wednesday. However, orders for bonds on Monday alone surpassed this number, and the Treasurer’s Office will determine whether to offer more bonds to individual investors on Tuesday.

“The demand from Massachusetts investors is very strong right now and the stronger the demand, the better the pricing on the bonds,” said Treasurer Tim Cahill. “This is a signal that investors continue to want to buy highly-rated paper such as the Commonwealth’s bonds. And by offering bonds during an early order period, we are giving local individual investors direct access to bonds before we think about selling them to institutional buyers, allowing them to invest in the Commonwealth’s future.”

Like today, bonds sold tomorrow will be sold to individual investors only, with Massachusetts residents getting priority in orders. Following the two-day retail-only sale, the Commonwealth will sell bonds competitively to institutional investors on Wednesday, May 20^th.  The bond sale is expected to generate more than $600 million in total bond proceeds, which will be used to finance capital investment in public infrastructure across the Commonwealth.

To date, the State Treasurer’s Office has sold more than $820 million in bonds to retail investors during Fiscal 2009.

The Commonwealth’s bond ratings are ‘AA/Aa2/AA’ from Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investor Services, and Standard & Poor’s, respectively. These ratings were affirmed by the rating agencies on Friday, May 15^th. For more information on the upcoming sale, please go to www.buymassachusettsbonds.com

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