Two common traits of the municipal bond market are its size and fragmentation. It also maintains a high volume of muni bond selling in the new-issue market, often called the primary market. The last five years of market data show that every week, on average, there are more than 200 new bond sales representing more than $7 billion in par amount of bonds – more than $1 billion a day.
Keeping up with this volume is increasingly difficult for analysts, who usually cover dozens of credits. This is why, for years, bond investors have recommended to issuers that they provide longer notice for an upcoming bond sale.
Generally, issuers provide notice of a bond sale with the publication of the preliminary official statement (POS), often about a week before the financing.
For the first time, BondLink has measured the level of investor interest generated with a typical 7-day notice of an upcoming bond sale and quantified the benefit of providing earlier notice to the bond market.
This analysis is the first of its kind, and we will be releasing these new insights later this week. We’re excited to share the results with our community as the benefits to issuers, in the form of greater investor interest and engagement, are significant.
We’ll also continue to share more insights this year about the impact of stronger investor relations in the municipal industry.
