On Wednesday, January 11, 2012, the City and County of Denver, Colorado, sold $50,650,000 in Wastewater Enterprise Revenue Bonds on a competitive basis using Grant Street Group's MuniAuction® platform. MuniAuction provides a unique online open auction format that saved the City and County over $258,000 in bond interest costs.
Following the sale, Bryan Stelmack of Piper Jaffray - the Financial Advisor for this deal - said "Piper Jaffray and the City and County of Denver were very pleased with the outcome of the sale. Receiving 40 bids from 11 individual bidders was a great result."
During the auction, 11 competing banks - or "underwriters" - submitted a total of 40 bids. Using MuniAuction's proprietary open auction process, each time an underwriter submitted a bid, it and all other underwriters who had previously bid instantaneously learned their rank. Underwriters then had the option to either hold or improve their bid (i.e., lower their True Interest Cost, or "TIC") in an effort to win the Bonds. Near the end of the auction, JP Morgan won the Bonds by improving, then submitting the bid with the lowest TIC.
A replay of the Denver auction is available on the Grant Street Group website at https://www.grantstreet.com/auctions/replays.
