Illinois Doubles Underwriters, Uses Lottery to Decide Rotation

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois, which shares with California the lowest bond rating among U.S. states, plans to issue debt through a negotiated sale in January in the first use of its new underwriter-rotation system.

The state doubled the number of firms qualified to serve as senior managers in its bond sales to 20, from 10 in the previous pool, according to its procurement bulletin website. It also implemented a rotation to determine who will manage each sale.

The rotation order was decided by a Sept. 21 public drawing in Chicago by Linda Kollmeyer, who selects winning numbers on television for the Illinois Lottery. Samuel A. Ramirez & Co./US Bancorp is first in line, according to a state notice. Of the 48 bidders for the top role, 41 are eligible to work for Illinois in some capacity. Twelve qualified for the co-senior manager pool and nine for co-manager.

“The state pays a significant amount of money to the banking industry,” John Sinsheimer, Illinois’s capital-markets director, said in a telephone interview. “We feel that those payments should be made available to a wide variety of banks, not just a few.”

Illinois plans to issue bonds “as it needs the money,” Sinsheimer said. The smaller, more frequent bond sales will “better match up against the cash-flow needs of our capital program,” he said. Details of the January general-obligation bond offering aren’t set, he said.

Skipping Possible

Still, the ability to underwrite a $400 million deal was a requirement to qualify for senior manager, Sinsheimer said. The state may skip underwriters if a sale is too large for the firm next in line, or if it requires special knowledge or expertise, he said.

“I had never heard of a lottery before it was used in Illinois,” said Frank Hoadley, Wisconsin’s capital-finance director and a member of the Chicago-based Government Finance Officers Association. “Bonds are practically flying off the shelves right now, but that’s assuming you don’t have underlying issues. Illinois might have felt it would be better served with more firms selling its debt.

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