Fitch Assigns Permanent Univ Fund (Texas) 2006B and C Bonds 'AAA'.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. assigns its 'AAA' rating to the Board of Regents An independent governing body that oversees a state's public Colleges and Universities. All 50 states have governing bodies that oversee the administration of public education. of The University of Texas System (U.T. System) Permanent University Fund Refunding Bonds, Series 2006B and Permanent University Fund Bonds, Series 2006C. In addition, Fitch affirms the 'AAA' and 'AAA/F1+' ratings on various PUF PUF Public Use File PUF Parallel URL fetcher (*nix download tool) PUF Physically Unclonable Function PUF Northern Puffer PUF Paid-Up-Front PUF Preguntas de Uso Frequente (Spanish: Frequently Asked Questions) senior lien senior lien n. the first security interest (lien or claim) placed upon property at a time before other liens, which are called "junior" liens. (See: mortgage, deed of trust, lien, UCC-1) bonds and subordinate lien flexible rate notes (FRNs) of the Board of Regents of University of Texas System and the Texas A&M System (A&M System). The Rating Outlook is Stable. The series 2006B bonds will be sold through Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER TYO: 8675 ), through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides capital markets services, investment banking and advisory services, wealth management, asset management, insurance, banking and related products and services on a global basis. & Co. The series 2006C bonds will be sold through Citigroup. Series 2006B bond proceeds will be used to refund various outstanding PUF bonds. Proceeds of the series 2006C bonds will be used to redeem $100 million of PUF FRNs, series, A. The 'AAA' rating is supported by the PUF's vast investment holdings, which had a book value of $9.6 billion and a market value of $10.7 billion as of Nov. 30, 2006. The Texas constitution requires that funds be distributed annually from the PUF to pay bond and note debt service on debt issued by U.T. System and the A&M System. The U.T. System receives two-thirds of the PUF's annual distributions and the A&M System receives one-third. The annual distributions are made under policies of the U.T. System Board of Regents pursuant to the current endowment distribution policy of 4.75% of the trailing 12 quarter average PUF market value. For fiscal year 2006, the total distribution was $357.3 million. The U.T. System's distribution covered PUF bond and note debt service by 2.65 times (x) and coverage of the A&M's system 2006 PUF debt service by 3.31x (coverage is expected to decline to 2.7x in 2007). Under the constitution, U.T. System may not issue PUF debt in exceed of 20% of the cost value of the PUF. The A&M System's debt limit is 10% of the cost value. Total U.T. System PUF debt outstanding as of August 31, 2006 was $1.03 billion. Total PUF debt outstanding for the A&M System was $429.2 million. Affirmation of the short-term rating of 'F1+' on the PUF FRNs issued by the U.T. System is based upon the ability of U.T. System resources (1) In a computer system, system resources are the components that provide its inherent capabilities and contribute to its overall performance. System memory, cache memory, hard disk space, IRQs and DMA channels are examples. to cover maximum liquidity demands. As of August, 31, 2006, U.T System's highly liquid short-term and intermediate term funds had a market value of $4.3 billion, providing 6.3x times coverage for outstanding short-term debt Short-term debt Debt obligations, recorded as current liabilities, requiring payment within the year. including $555.4 million of revenue financing system (RFS (Remote File System) A distributed file system for Unix computers introduced by AT&T in 1986 with Unix System V Release 3.0. It is similar to Sun's NFS, but only for Unix systems. ) commercial paper, $28.4 million of RS series 2001A variable rate bonds and $100 million of PUF notes. Assuming all the short-term debt programs were outstanding at the maximum amounts, $400 million of PUF FRNs and $800 million of RFS commercial paper, the available funds would cover the debt by 3.6x times. Affirmation of the short-term rating of 'F1+' on the A&M System's flexible rate notes (FRNs) is based on the availability of A&M System resources. As of August 31, 2006, the A&M System's highly liquid money market fund and U.S. government fixed-income investments, net of bond proceeds, totaled $635.6 million, providing 1.9x times of coverage of maximum liquidity demands of the A&M System's two short-term obligation programs: $125 million PUF FRNs and $200 million of revenue financing system commercial paper. Outstanding PUF Debt: University of Texas System --Series 1997, 2002A&B, 2004A&B, 2005A&B, and 2006 'AAA'; --$400 million (maximum amount of to be outstanding) Flexible Rate Notes, Series A 'AAA/F1+' Texas A&M System --Series 1992A, 1996, 1999A, 1998, 2003, 2004, and 2006 'AAA'; --$125 million (maximum amount to be outstanding) Flexible Rate Notes 'AAA/F1+'. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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