New York City has begun interviewing candidates to serve as senior manager on two major upcoming issues, after reaching a compromise earlier this week on the selection of financial advisers for the deals.
City officials said the existing slate of seven rotating senior managers selected last year by the Dinkins Administration is being used to select underwriters for the two upcoming deals: a $750 million to $1 billion revenue anticipation note sale and a $225 million bond refunding.
Both issues are expected to be sold next month, according to city officials.
The process has been held up for the past several weeks as the city comptroller, Alan Hevesi,. wrangled with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani over whether the city needs two financial advisers or one.
Hevesi argued that the current arrangement, in which both Public Resources Advisory Group and P.G. Corbin & Co. serve as advisers, should be continued. The mayor, citing cost considerations, argued that the city could get by with just one firm, Public Resources.
In an apparent compromise reached Monday, Giuliani said the city would use both Public Resources and P.G. Corbin for the two upcoming deals. After three months, however, the arrangement will be reviewed, city officials said.
The compromise was key to getting the two deals to market in time to beat deadlines created by the need to generate about $225 million in budget relief that the mayor is counting on from the refunding.
The seven-member rotating syndicate members that are interviewing for the new slots are Bear Stearns & Co., CS First Boston, Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch & Co., and Prudential Securities Inc.
