NTTA

After months of rancorous arguments TxDOT has backed down agreeing to NTTA terms, reaching a kind of agreement on the value of the toll concession on State Highway 161 (TX161) in the south central part of the Dallas-Ft Worth metro area. Agreement on the "market valuation" of the concession with NTTA allowed construction of the road to begin today.
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North Texas Tollway Authority has successfully refinanced $2.4 billion of bond anticipation notes (BANs). The sale of bonds today was heavily oversubscribed. Over 60 institutions put orders in for $16b in NTTA bonds according to Bear Stearns who organized the placement.

NTTA chairman Paul Wageman said the result was "particularly gratifying" given recent turbulence in the municipal bond markets.
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TxDOT's 50 year toll concession and lease of SH121 to the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) reached financial close late Thursday when the NTTA wired $3,197m into a bank account of the Texas Department of Transportation.  read more »

The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) say they are moving toward a scheduled financial close on the SH121 toll concession with TxDOT which requires a $2.5b upfront payment to the state. The deadline precludes the traditional public authority method of putting in place permanent longterm bonds so NTTA is issuing Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs). These are bridge financing between the deadline for payment to TxDOT and their ability to sell longterm bonds.
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North Texas Tollway Authority people are so sure of getting the heavily contested SH121 tollroad from TxDOT selectee Cintra/JPMorgan they have started work on it. They aren't actually moving dirt but they've let contracts for detailed engineering design - $11m worth.
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NTTA's pledge of system revenues for SH121 opens Dallas North and PGB commuters to higher toll rates, financial analysts point out. They say that the crucial distinction between the NTTA bid and Cintra/JPMorgan is that Cintra/JPM will put no lien on the existing tollroads in north Dallas. NTTA's proposal is for a system financing, they say.  read more »

James Bass, chief financial officer of Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) says we erred in attributing a two-page critique of the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) to KPMG/Goldman Sachs. He says it was written by TxDOT Dallas staff. TxDOT asked both KPMG and Goldman Sachs to review it and comment.

But he says this became moot once NTTA released their executive summary of their proposal.

Here is the email, we received:
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North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) are getting into the concession business. They say they can improve substantially on Cintra's proposal for SH121 north of Dallas in Denton and Collin counties. Today they put out a press release, an executive summary and a powerpoint on their bid for SH121 - the first time in the US that a public toll authority has made a bid in competition with investor groups for a toll concession.
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