Transaction Details

Pinecrest Academy of Nevada

Municipal

Lead Bookrunner

Behind the Deal: Pinecrest Academy of Nevada

Pinecrest Academy of Nevada began operating in 2012 and has grown to be a seasoned public charter school network, serving more than 8,000 students in grades K-12 across various campuses in Nevada. Their mission is to unite the community to prepare students for college and a career.

In December 2024, Baird’s National Charter School Finance team served as senior managing underwriter on the $37,370,000 BB+ rated transaction for Pinecrest Academy of Nevada (34-, 39-, 44-, 49-, and 53-year terms with a taxable bond maturing in 2026). Proceeds of the Series 2024 Bonds were used to refinance Pinecrest’s outstanding Series 2020A-2 Bonds, to fund a Bond Reserve Fund, and to pay issuance expenses related to the Series 2024 Bonds. The 2020A-2 Bonds were previously issued for the benefit of Pinecrest’s Sloan Canyon Campus, which was constructed in two phases, beginning in 2018. The Sloan Canyon Campus has the capacity to serve 2,400 students in grades K-12. 

This was Baird’s last charter school pricing of 2024 and was the first publicly sold charter school issue rated in the ‘BB’-category to be priced with discount bonds (4.00% - 4.50% coupons) by any underwriter in 2024. On the day of pricing, Baird’s underwriting desk entered the market at aggressive levels and received orders from 17 different accounts. Baird was able to finalize the pricing with tighter spreads to the Municipal Market Data (‘MMD’) index for the longer bonds than had been achieved on recently priced investment grade (‘BBB’-category) issues. The refunding resulted in total cashflow savings of approximately $7.6 million over the remaining 30-year life of the bond issue for Pinecrest.