The Port Authority's first-ever revenue bond gets high marks from ratings agencies Moody's and S&P. GEDA says together the ratings are the highest-ever for a local autonomous agency.

The $72.6 million bond issue was assigned a BAA-2 Negative outlook rating by Moody's, which said on its website that the rating is supported by the strong competitive position as Guam's sole commercial port handling around 90% of the cargo including a significant portion of military cargo. But Moody's says the negative outlook is because while the port operates fairly independently from the government, it expects that it would not be able to disconnect itself from any material financial stress at the government level.

S&P assigned an "A" rating based on "The authority's strong financial performance, very strong debt and liabilities capacity and strong liquidity and financial flexibility."