(Washington, DC) This week the District of Columbia successfully marketed and sold two series of general obligation (GO) bonds and one series of tax revenue anticipation notes (TRANs) in the financial marketplace.

On November 29, the District’s Office of Finance and Treasury sold $250 million of TRANs to finance the city’s seasonal cash needs for fiscal year 2006, which began October 1. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley each purchased half of the notes, via a competitive sale, at an interest rate of 3.28 percent. The notes are due and payable on September 29, 2006, the last day of the District’s fiscal year.

Merrill Lynch won the competitive bid on November 30 for the District’s $331.2 million in new money GO bonds (Series 2005A), which will finance the District’s on-going Capital Improvements Program and which have a final maturity of June 1, 2030. The bonds sold at a weighted average interest rate of 4.60 percent. The TRANs and GO bonds were purchased by the above-named underwriting firms for resale to institutional and retail investors that have indicated an interest in purchasing District securities.

The District also sold a series of GO refunding bonds yesterday, December 1. The Series 2005B bonds, which totaled $116.5 million and have a final maturity of June 1, 2027, were offered to investors via an underwriting syndicate led by Morgan Stanley and Loop Capital Markets at a weighted average interest rate of 4.48 percent. The refunding bonds, which refinance existing bonds at lower interest rates, will provide the District with $4.12 million in present value savings over the next several years.

These sales occurred in the wake of last week’s upgrade of the District’s GO bond rating by Standard & Poor’s from A to A+, the highest rating ever for the District. Also last week, Moody’s Investors Service raised the District’s rating outlook to “positive” from “stable.”

“All three of our sales this week were well received by the marketplace. The recent rating upgrade represents continued progress in the District’s financial standing, and provided additional incentive to investors to purchase the District’s bonds and notes at favorable interest rates,” said Acting Treasurer Lasana K. Mack.