$160 Million Advance Refunding for Presbyterian Retirement Communities Generates over $34 Million in Gross Savings
“We expected this advanced refunding to be a fairly routine bond issue. As it turns out, with the election and a lot of refinancings borrowings in the market, this was not a routine bond issue. HJ Sims provided the additional resources, time and years of experience to accomplish all of the goals that we had set out at the beginning of the process. Thank you HJ Sims for your continued support of our mission.”
– Henry Keith, Chief Financial Officer, Westminster Communities of Florida
Partnered Right®
Presbyterian Retirement Communities, Inc. (“PRC”), d/b/a Westminster Communities of Florida, and its affiliates (collectively, the “Obligated Group”) constitute the largest group of life plan communities in the State of Florida with a total of 3,244 units including 2,025 residential units, 468 assisted living units and 751 skilled nursing units. According to the 2015 LeadingAge 100 Report, the Obligated Group is the 10th largest nonprofit operator of senior living units in the United States.
PRC was originally chartered on December 31, 1954 and opened its first Life Plan Community, Westminster Manor in Bradenton, in 1961. The obligated group currently consists of nine Life Plan communities. As of September 2016, PRC maintained total occupancy of 94% across all of its communities and levels of care.
Since 1954, PRC has developed its communities and focused its marketing efforts in order to attract the middle-income market. Entrance Fees at the Obligated Group’s communities range from $44,100 to $357,000, with an average Entrance Fee of $120,600 for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016.
Structured Right®
As interest rates continued to decrease in the first half of 2016, HJ Sims worked with PRC to evaluate and monitor potential refunding opportunities. PRC engaged HJ Sims in August 2016 to advance refund its 2010A bonds and fund up to $45 million of new money for capital project. HJ Sims worked with PRC to achieve the following strategic objectives:
- Reduce overall cost of capital and annual debt service.
- Increase debt capacity and use it to borrow new money without affecting credit rating.
- Provide improvements to financial covenants.
Executed Right®
In order to meet PRC’s financing objectives, HJ Sims worked with the Obligated Group to produce and evaluate multiple refinancing structures and scenarios. HJ Sims monitored the capital market environment throughout the financing process and adjusted accordingly as conditions changed. The goals were to maximize annual Net Present Value savings on the refunding portion of the bond issue and limit aggregate Maximum Annual Debt Service for the proposed 2016 bond issue and PRC’s existing debt.
HJ Sims successfully closed the $160,365,000 issue on December 15th, 2016 with an all in True-Interest-Cost of 4.27%. On a present value basis, the refunding saves PRC approximately $9.421 million, with actual aggregate Savings of approximately $34.8 million through the life of the prior bonds.
Financed Right®
As a result of the financing, PRC was able to achieve the following objectives:
PRC was able to take advantage of historically low interest rates and borrow at a True Interest Cost of 4.27% for the Series 2016 bonds. The outstanding balance of the refunded bonds carried an average interest rate of 5.94%.
Savings from the refunding provided capacity for PRC to borrow additional funds for capital improvements with little impact to the Obligated Group’s overall Maximum Annual Debt Service, which was an important factor in maintaining an investment grade rating from Fitch of “A-“.
PRC was able to reduce its Debt Service Reserve Fund requirement for the 2016 bonds to be equal to the statutory requirement from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, which is equal to the next year’s principal and interest payment, saving PRC approximately $2.35 million in borrowing cost from the prior requirement. In addition, other covenants were improved to allow PRC more flexibility to transfer money in and out of the Obligated Group.
For more information, please contact:
Kerry Moynihan
(407) 313-1702