Bangkok--27 Oct--Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'AA-' long-term rating to University of California Board of Regents' nearly $760 million series G, H, and I medical center pooled revenue bonds. At the same time, Standard & Poor's affirmed its 'AA-' long-term and underlying rating (SPUR) on the regents' outstanding medical center pooled revenue bonds. The outlook on all bonds is stable.
The rating on the medical center pooled revenue bonds reflects our assessment of the strong performance of the medical centers on a combined basis," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Jessica Matsumori. "Further supporting the rating is the centers' sizeable health care delivery system with nationally ranked clinical and academic programs that provide high acuity services and the regents' ability to use the system's lawfully available funds to make debt service payments."
UC expects to use bond proceeds are to refund a portion of the existing 2000 bonds, finance a portion of the construction costs for the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, and fund a portion of capital projects at the UCLA Medical Center.
The UC medical centers include UC Davis (563 available beds), UCI (368 available beds), UCSD (525 available beds), UCLA (829 available beds,), and UCSF (660 available beds). The regents have approved the establishment of a new medical school at the Riverside campus and are considering a new medical school at the Merced campus.
RELATED CRITERIA AND RESEARCH
USPF Criteria: Not-For-Profit Health Care, June 14, 2007
USPF Criteria: Higher Education, June 19, 2007
USPF Criteria: Debt Derivative Profile Scores, March 27, 2006
Complete ratings information is available to RatingsDirect subscribers on the Global Credit Portal at www.globalcreditportal.com and RatingsDirect subscribers at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com. Use the Ratings search box located in the left column.
Media Contact:
Fabienne Alexis, New York (1) 212-438-7530,
[email protected]
Analyst Contacts:
Jessica Matsumori, San Francisco (1) 415-371-508
Geraldine Poon, San Francisco (1) 415-371-5078