Octa's transportation blog

Maintaining Positive Relations with Investors

Since the early 1990s, OCTA has maintained an active investor relations program.  As part of this program, each year OCTA conducts a series of meetings with rating agencies and financial institutions in New York.

OCTA and its affiliated agencies have issued approximately $2.4 billion of debt to advance various capital programs since 1987. One sub-component of debt issuance is the service of debit, which includes annually updating the rating agencies on the progress of OCTA’s programs and services.

Recently, Chairman Tim Shaw, Vice-chair Steve Jones, Director Michael Hennessey, CEO Darrell Johnson, Chief Financial Officer Andy Oftelie, and Treasury/Public Finance Department Manager Robert Davis met with Moody’s, S&P Global, Fitch Ratings, Bank of America, and Met Life Investment Management.

The annual meetings provide an opportunity to discuss issues facing OCTA and the Orange County economy. OCTA’s track record of providing projects on time and under budget has helped establish OCTA’s credibility with the rating agencies.

During the meetings, representatives discussed OCTA’s programs and services.  The meetings focused on recent activities of several OC Go (also known as Measure M) projects including the OC Streetcar Project, OC Bus 360 improvements, and the  I-405 Improvement Project.  The OCTA team also provided an update on the Orange County economy, 91 Express Lanes traffic and toll revenue growth levels, fiscal year 2019-20 approved budget, OC Go sales tax collections, and OCTA’s debt profile including debt service coverage calculations. The meetings were well received, with interest and questions regarding the  405 Express Lanes Project, and the 91 Express Lanes, and Orange County economy.  This information will be used by the rating agencies for their annual review of OCTA.