Learn about Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA), including Featured News, Management Team, Board of Directors, PR Department of Treasury SUT Collections Report, and 5.5% SUT Collections Transferred to the Bond Trustee.
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The Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (by its Spanish acronym, “COFINA”) is a public corporation and instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (the “Commonwealth”). COFINA was originally created in 2007 to finance or fund certain appropriation-backed debt payable to Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Public Finance Corporation and certain Commonwealth expenses. In February 2019, COFINA restructured its debts in a proceeding under Title III of the Puerto Rico, Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, Public Law 114-187 (2016), through the issuance of approximately $12 billion in new bonds.
The Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (the “Corporation” or “COFINA,” by its Spanish acronym) announced the appointment of Alejandro Camporreale, Esq., as the new Executive Director and General Counsel of the Corporation, effective December 1, 2021.
COFINA ANNOUNCES RECEIPT OF ALL SALES AND USE TAXES OWNED FOR THE THIRD CONSECUTIVE YEAR
COFINA also publishes Audited Financial Statements for Fiscal Year 2021 and praises Supreme Court Decision not to hear last appeal challenging the validity of the COFINA Plan of Adjustment
(October 18, 2021 - San Juan, Puerto Rico) - The Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (“COFINA”) confirmed that sales and use taxes received and deposited between July 1, 2021 and October 15, 2021 with The Bank of New York Mellon (“BNY”), as Trustee for the COFINA bonds, total $472,651,346 (“COFINA Revenues”), which equals the amount of sales and use taxes owned by COFINA for fiscal year 2022. This marks the third time since the restructuring of COFINA’s bonds, pursuant to Act 241-2018 and COFINA’s Third Amended Title III Plan of Adjustment (the “COFINA Plan of Adjustment”) confirmed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico pursuant to Title III of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (“PROMESA”), that COFINA receives the sales and use taxes which were determined to be its property.
On fiscal years 2020 and 2021, the total COFINA Revenues owned by COFINA for such periods ($436,992,738 and $454,472,448, respectively) were received and deposited with BNY between July 1, 2019 and November 21, 2019 and between July 1, 2020 and October 19, 2020, respectively.
“COFINA’s independent Board of Directors and its management are pleased that this milestone was achieved for the third consecutive year, as it evidences COFINA’s successful restructuring” said Carlos M. Yamín, COFINA’s Executive Director.
COFINA also announced that it has received and released the completed audit of its financial statements for fiscal year 2021 and has posted the audit on the Municipal Securities and Rulemaking Board Electronic Municipal Market Access website (“EMMA”). The completion of the audit in the month of October for its fiscal year ended June 30th for the second consecutive year continues to demonstrate COFINA’s commitment to transparency and meeting its obligations to its bondholders. Under the leadership of its board of independent directors, COFINA has become the first issuer in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to publish its fiscal year 2021 audited financial statements.
Additionally, COFINA announced that, on October 4, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Petition for a Writ of Certiorari presented by COFINA’s junior bondholders on April 2, 2021 challenging the validity of the COFINA Plan of Adjustment under PROMESA.
The petition challenged the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit’s decision to uphold Judge Laura Taylor Swain’s order confirming the COFINA Plan of Adjustment. The First Circuit’s March 2, 2021 decision concluded that efforts to revoke the COFINA Plan of Adjustment were barred under the doctrine of equitable mootness because the plan has already been implemented. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision conclusively resolves the last remaining challenge to the COFINA Plan of Adjustment.
“COFINA’s independent Board of Directors and its management are pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear the last appeal challenging the validity of the COFINA Plan of Adjustment. The Court’s decision marks the end to possible challenges to the COFINA Plan of Adjustment and reaffirms the Corporation’s successful restructuring,” added Mr. Carlos M. Yamín, COFINA’s Executive Director.
For additional information please visit COFINA’s website at www.cofina.pr.gov.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements, which include, but are not limited to, expectations with respect to the COFINA Bonds. The Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (“AAFAF”) and COFINA cannot provide assurances that the future developments affecting AAFAF, COFINA, or the bonds will be as anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expectations due to a variety of factors. Any forward-looking statement made in this release speaks only as of the date hereof and AAFAF and COFINA do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
See Attached Press Release.
Mr. Zyngier has over twenty years of investment, strategy, and operating experience. In 2013, Mr. Zyngier founded Batuta Advisors to pursue investment and advisory opportunities in both the public and private markets. Mr. Zyngier has extensive experience serving on boards of directors. He is currently a director of Atari SA, Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc., AudioEye Inc., Applied Minerals, Inc., and certain other private entities. He was previously the chairman of the board of Vertis Inc., a director of Island One LLC and executive chairman of DTV America Corporation. Mr. Zyngier holds an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago and a BSc in Chemical Engineering from UNICAMP in Brazil.
Mr. Heimowitz is the founder and chief executive officer of Verify Financial, a start-up firm that uses credit views, peer sourced from institutional investors, to enhance traditional credit grading. Mr. Heimowitz’s forty-plus-year Public Finance career has been in credit ratings and investment banking, having held senior positions at Moody’s Investors Service, Lehman Brothers, and RBC Capital Markets. Throughout his career, he has been an active municipal market participant as a member of The Municipal Analyst Group of New York, The National Federation of Municipal Analysts, and The Society of Municipal Analysts, and as a past member of the Government Accounting Standards Advisory Council and President of the Municipal Forum of New York. Mr. Heimowitz served on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) from 2012 to 2014 and was MSRB’s Chairman in 2014. He holds a BA from Clark University and an MA in Public Policy from Harvard University.
Mr. Kolman presently serves as the head of the municipal group and member of the firm-wide operating committee for Academy Securities, a military and disabled veteran-owned investment bank. Following a twenty-five year career with Goldman Sachs, Mr. Kolman left his position in 2007 as co-head of the municipal department at Goldman Sachs to serve as vice chairman of the Municipal and Infrastructure Assurance Corporation until 2010, when Mr. Kolman became a managing director and head of the municipal securities group at US Bank. Mr. Kolman left his position at US Bank in 2016 for his current role at Academy Securities. Mr. Kolman has served on the executive committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and received the SIFMA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He also was a member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board from 1996 to 1999 and is presently a member of the municipal executive committee for SIFMA. For over fifteen years, Mr. Kolman has served on the board of managers for the East Side House Settlement, a community-based organization serving the Mott Haven district of the South Bronx. He presently serves as treasurer and chair of the Finance Community.
