Business Feels Time Is Right For Refinancing

Saline County officials were told that, due to rising federal interest rates, the timing was good for refinancing $22 million in revenue bonds for Saline Memorial Hospital. A Quorum Court meeting hosted Mark McBride of Stephens Inc, a financial planning company in Little Rock. The restructuring of the hospital bonds was approved by justices of the peace in July and were sold on Tuesday morning. Interest rates will be reduced by the new bonds, totaling 1995 bonds that had been refinanced in 1989. The refinance comes in response to a need to increase the hospital’s cash flow savings in 2006, to raise $4 million for the construction of an ER addition and to keep the hospital’s annual payment less than in the last few years.

A chart was provided to compare the hospital’s preliminary financing information presented last June, which showed that the annual payments would be reduced by $40,000 or $50,000 a year. The final bond issue as of June 22 was $17,435,000, less than had been projected due to surplus funds on the deposit bond. The surplus was applied towards retirement of the 1995 bonds, allowing the new bond issue to be reduced.