Denver Public Schools announced Tuesday that it has sold $396 million in pension bonds at lower interest rates than projected expected.
According to a release from the district, market demand was almost twice as high as the sale amount, which lowered the interest rates.
The bonds sold at an interest rate of 7.89 percent, after including other fees, compared to the estimates before the deal at 8.4 percent.
The district school board voted in March to restructure the pension debt from the original plan in 2008.
The new plan called for restructuring half of the existing $750 million in variable-debt pension certificates into fixed rate certificates.
Fixed rate certificates carry little risk, but also higher interest rates.
The termination fees to convert the existing variable-rate bonds to a fixed rate were determined by the interest rates at the time the deal closed, and were also lower than expected at $36 million.
A comparison using the most recent rates at the time of the vote had showed converting one half of the certificates would cost about $2.4 million more per year than converting one third.
The termination costs are already included in the 7.89 percent interest rate.
Before making the 2008 transaction, the district was paying an 8.5 percent rate to fund the employee pensions.
