FORTRESS INVESTMENT GROUP FAILS TO SELL PRIVATE ACTIVITY LOANS FOR A HIGH-SPEED PASSENGER BRIGHTLINE TRAIN FROM CALIFORNIA TO LAS VEGAS. Since the end of September, they had been marketing $3.2 billion before reducing the number to $2.4 billion. The project has now been postponed.
Brightline was offering Federal income tax-free yields of up to 7.5%. If one is a taxpayer at the highest tax bracket of 39% and is subject to the Obamacare net investment income tax rate of 3.8% (applies to any taxpayer whose income is above $250,000), an investor would have to find a TAXABLE bond yielding 12.67% to get a same AFTER-TAX return of 7.5%.
This is a big telling of what the bond market thinks of the creditworthiness of this issuer when Brightline cannot get a deal done at these levels given the overall super low-interest-rate environment.
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