Cambridge Wins 2017 Deal of the Year Award for Minibond Program

The City of Cambridge has been awarded the 2017 “Deal of the Year” by The Bond Buyer in the non-traditional financing category. The annual Deal of the Year Awards recognize innovation in municipal finance and attract submissions from government and municipal bond issuers across the country. This award recognizes Cambridge’s new Minibond program, which offers City of Cambridge bonds directly to Cambridge residents. The bonds funded city-wide capital projects including school building renovations, municipal facility upgrades, and implementation of Cambridge’s “Complete Streets” plan. In February 2017, the City offered $2 million in Minibonds with a $1,000 minimum purchase, much lower than the standard $5,000 minimum purchase for most municipal bond offerings.

“I am absolutely thrilled to receive national recognition for the City and our staff members who worked so hard to get this program established.” Said City Manager Louis DePasquale. “For many years, the City of Cambridge received calls from City residents asking how they could buy the City’s Bonds. Our Minibonds are a great way to provide Cambridge residents a way to invest directly in City projects that will benefit our entire community. There was a lot of demand from our citizens and we sold out early last year, so we plan to expand our Minibonds offerings to Cambridge residents this year, too.”

Cambridge’s financial team worked with Boston representatives from legal firm Locke Lord and municipal advisory firm Hilltop Securities who provided advice to the City for the 2017 Minibonds, and with Neighborly Securities, a San-Francisco based underwriting and broker-dealer working to expand individuals’ access to the public finance market by leveraging technology and innovative marketing techniques. The Minibonds received the highest possible Aaa and AAA ratings from Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings.

Cambridge is in prestigious company with the other finalists for the 2017 Deal of the Year.  Other regional winners which will be honored along with Cambridge:

• Northeast Region: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s $370 million issuance of sustainability bonds financing projects that benefit the environment and society
• Southeast Region: The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority's $472 million deal to is the first new use of commercial bond insurance and first use of a surety in place of a Debt Service Reserve Fund in a non-profit healthcare finance since the credit crisis a decade ago.
• Southwest Region: The Fort Worth Transportation Authority’s inaugural $325 million financing for a new commuter rail line to Dallas-Fort Worth airport
• Midwest Region: The Great Lakes Water Authority’s $1.3 billion first-ever bond issue, financing water system capital projects and achieving significant future savings
• Far West Region: The Bay Area Toll Authority’s 41.9 billion sale to support its Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program
• Small Issuer Financing: The City of Missoula, Montana issued $138 million in bond anticipation notes to purchase its water system from a private company
• Healthcare Financing: Kaiser Permanente’s $4.2 billion bond issue which set records for the largest healthcare institution financing

Cambridge will receive the Deal of the Year finalist award along with the seven other Deal of the Year 2017 qualifiers at The Bond Buyer’s 16^th Annual Deal of the Year Awards event this December in New York City.

Learn more about Cambridge's Minibond program at http://minibonds.cambridgema.gov/faqs.

Residents who are interested in buying Cambridge minibonds should create an account through Neighborly, www.neighborly.com/cambridge, before February 16, 2018. Neighborly expects to offer residents minibonds through an online platform, which is expected to go live on a date to be determined for the 2018 Minibond Sale.