Brightline, the debt-laden Florida private railroad, tapped reserves to made a July 1 interest payment due to holders of its senior municipal bonds and corporate notes, according to people familiar with the matter.
A Brightline train in Miami, Florida, US, on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Brightline is on a slow track toward building ridership as the Florida high-speed rail system in December disclosed in bond documents that it anticipates carrying a combined 5.5 million passengers this year, down 21% from Brightline's forecast of about 7 million riders in September when service to the Orlando airport opened.
It’s a date that lenders to Brightline, the debt-laden private Florida railroad, have had circled for months: July 1. That’s when the company will likely look to scrounge up what’s left in reserves to pay bondholders and stave off a formal default for the last time.
The bankruptcy case of a small Washington State city can move forward, a US bankruptcy court judge ruled, rejecting a legal challenge by a developer.
Male lawyer working with contract papers and wooden gavel on tabel in courtroom. justice and law ,attorney, court judge, concept. Photographer: boonchai wedmakawand/Moment RF
New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who oversees the state’s $300 billion pension fund, is facing his first primary challenge since taking office nearly two decades ago as two rival Democrats try to seize on the progressive energy that propelled Mayor Zohran Mamdani to victory in November.
More than two decades after Wall Street started pumping out a new type of bonds — those backed by the legal-settlement payments governments receive from cigarette companies — one batch has finally been driven into a default. It almost certainly won’t be the last.
A woman smokes a cigarette in New York, U.S., on Monday, June 28, 2010. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Justice Department's bid for as much as $280 billion in tobacco company profits, refusing to hear an Obama administration appeal. Altria Group Inc. and Reynolds American Inc., the largest cigarette makers, surged on the news.
Brightline Trains Florida LLC, the struggling $6 billion private railroad between Miami and Orlando, struck a deal with holders of $985 million of municipal bonds to extend a debt payment due Monday through the end of the month, according to a securities filing.
A Brightline train in Miami. Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg
Attractive yields and strong credit fundamentals are setting the municipal bond market up for a solid second half of the year, said Paul Malloy, the head of municipals at The Vanguard Group Inc.
The municipal bond market’s $80 billion tobacco bond sector had its first-ever default after a Nassau County, New York, agency failed to make a $36 million principal payment on June 1.
Commercial and residential buildings in Long Beach, New York, U.S., on Friday, April 23, 2021. Long Beach is known for its raucous West End bars, Irish Day parade and two-mile boardwalk. Locally, the city of 34,000 on a barrier island 25 miles east of New York City, is also renowned for fiscal mismanagement. Photographer: Johnny Milano/Bloomberg
Brightline is weighing bankruptcy-loan offers from its largest creditors after the Florida passenger railroad failed to lure a buyer by a self-imposed bidding deadline last month, according to people familiar with the matter.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to extend the timetable to pay off the city’s pension debt will free up money in the near term to close a yawning budget deficit.
Investors holding Brightline Florida’s $2.2 billion of senior bonds could get as little as 44 cents on the dollar in a bankruptcy or restructuring, according to CreditSights. Holders of lower ranked debt could be wiped out in a worst-case scenario.
Passengers board a Brightline train in Aventura, Florida.
It’s becoming clearer by the day that Brightline, the struggling Florida private railroad, is shaping up to rank among the biggest municipal-bond restructurings ever, alongside the likes of Puerto Rico and Detroit.
Investors holding $1.8 billion of bonds to finance Brightline West, a high-speed rail line between Southern California and Las Vegas, are asserting more control of the project after giving the railroad three more months to inject capital.
An illustration of a Brightline West high-speed train. Source: Brightline
New York City taxpayers may face a bill of more than $500 million next year if proposals to increase public employee benefits are approved as part of the state budget.
Pedestrians on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Photographer: Adam Gray/Bloomberg
New York State collected $127.5 billion in tax revenue last fiscal year, $2.3 billion more than Governor Kathy Hochul had estimated two months earlier, according to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The New York City skyline Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg
New York State collected $127.5 billion in tax revenue last fiscal year, $2.3 billion more than Governor Kathy Hochul had estimated two months earlier, according to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The New York City skyline Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg
New York City’s $320 billion pension funds plan to invest $4 billion in affordable apartments, doubling their investment amid a city-wide housing crunch.
The Brooklyn Bridge and One World Trade Center along the Manhattan skyline in New York, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. New York City is staring down a $10 billion budget gap next fiscal year, reflecting slowing tax collections and uncertainty over federal funding streams.
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