California sets preliminary yields on $4 billion bond sale

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California says it has taken in $1.7 billion in individual-investor orders so far today for its sale of $4 billion in general obligation bonds.

Shown below are the preliminary tax-free yields that brokerages are quoting for various maturities of the bonds.

The state’s brokerage syndicate will take orders from individual investors today and Tuesday (minimum order: $5,000). Institutional investors will bid on Wednesday, and that is when the final yields will be set. Individual investors have the option of canceling their orders Wednesday if they don’t like the final yields.

For more background on the bond sale, see this post I wrote last week.

The preliminary tax-free yields:

Maturity Yield

04/01/2013 3.25%

04/01/2014 3.75%

04/01/2015 4.10%

04/01/2016 4.25%

04/01/2017 4.50%

04/01/2018 4.75%

04/01/2019 4.90%

04/01/2020 5.00%

04/01/2021 5.20%

04/01/2022 5.40%

04/01/2023 5.50%

04/01/2024 5.60%

04/01/2025 5.65%

04/01/2026 5.70%

04/01/2027 5.75%

04/01/2028 5.80%

04/01/2029 5.85%

04/01/2036 6.00%

-- Tom Petruno