Story - The Meade County Messenger


Vol. 114, No. 34	August 15, 2007

Financial presentation highlights riverport meeting

By LARRY SEE JR.
Messenger Staff

A financial investment representative of Ross Sinclaire and Associates Investment Bankers updated the Meade County Riverport Authority on the firm’s services last week.

Firm financial and management consultant Ross Barrow said Ross Sinclaire and Associates is a regional investment banking firm and they have been ranked first in Kentucky for the past five years.

“We also have engineers and lawyers on staff,” Barrow said.

Barrow explained there are two types of municipal debts with general obligation bonds being one of them.

Barrow said these bonds are issued with the full faith and credit of the issuer, such as a state, city or county.

“The lenders feel pretty comfortable with them, as the revenues are issued and secured by the revenues of the particular project,” Barrow said.

Barrow said there was a lot of steps for the process, adding it could take upwards of 30 to 60 days before completion.

“We would serve as the bond counsel, the financial adviser and look to individual, local banks to hold the funds,” Barrow said.

“The part where it gets labor-intensive is the marketing and distribution,” Barrow said, adding his firm uses outside firms to assist in this process.

“Also, if the deal does not get done, we don’t make a dime,” Barrow said.

“This is a very detailed process and I went through it pretty quickly,” he said. “I am willing to answer any questions and am willing to come back as many times as you want.”

“We have it (the program) really segregated and we do it more than anyone else in the state,” he said.

Barrow said his firm has completed projects like the Riverport before, but couldn’t think of any, because his primary target area is eastern Kentucky.

“We have done 80 percent of the industrial parks across the state and we also do about 80 percent of the (new) courthouse construction,” he said.

“We do a lot of sewer and do some of the bigger ones in the state,” he said. Barrow said his firm would also serve as financial adviser as long as the riverport wanted them, with their only fee to come out of the bond proceeds.

“We offer very competitive rates,” he said. “We don’t spend a lot of money on marketing, but we do pride ourselves on our reputation.”

Barrow joined RSA in January 2005. He has an extensive background as a financial and management consultant for water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities. Within RSA, his duties encompass a broad range of analytical analysis for the South Carolina and Kentucky local government divisions. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BS in mechanical engineering and a masters of business administration.

Click Here to Go Back