Practices: 501(c)(3) Finance

Nowhere is the healthcare industry’s complexity greater than in its financing needs. Not-for-profit healthcare provider organizations regularly access the tax-exempt debt market to generate new capital and refinance existing debt, while for-profit providers pursue their financing needs through public and private equity and debt financing transactions. The wide range of healthcare service providers – from hospitals to medical device and pharmaceutical companies to technology service suppliers – continually interact with private equity and venture capital funds, as well as commercial lending and investment banks, for their financing needs.

No matter what your business focus, you want every financing transaction to support your mission and operating strategy while strengthening your balance sheet for the long term. That means your law firm, as issuer’s or borrower’s counsel, has to structure the transaction in the way that works best for you. Your law firm should protect your interests, handle the documentation and regulatory issues, and make sure the financing does not limit future options.

National Practice

Ungaretti & Harris serves a national client base in its healthcare finance practice. We serve in various capacities: bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, borrower’s counsel, letter of credit bank counsel, and trustee’s counsel. Because our practice is national in scope, and encompasses the most sophisticated financing vehicles, you get comprehensive help that includes numerous unique strengths:

Direct involvement of senior partners in structuring and documenting your transaction.
The ability to view the transaction from the perspective of various parties at the negotiating table, including credit enhancers, insurers and other key financing participants.
Experience with swaps, derivatives, and other innovative financing vehicles.
Access to creative financing sources, including private equity funds and venture capital firms.

Public Finance

We have worked with healthcare organizations on over 65 transactions involving the issuance of more than $2 billion in tax-exempt bonds since 1995. We have a significant client base in Illinois, Wisconsin and the upper Midwest, but have represented healthcare issuers across the country – from California to Texas to the District of Columbia. Whatever your financing need, you can work confidently with a law firm whose recent experience includes:

Assisting a regional hospital system in securing $700 million in combined variable rate notes from three separate bond issuers in a transaction.
Representing two major Chicago-based healthcare systems in connection with the issuance of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-exempt bonds to refinance existing debt and to finance capital projects at the systems’ healthcare facilities.
Representing two national underwriters in the issuance of over $500 million of tax-exempt bonds to finance the construction of a women's hospital for a major academic medical center.
Negotiating with tax-exempt bondholders to obtain a waiver of an impending financial covenant default by an inner-city Chicago hospital.
Assisting a major healthcare system in connection with an audit by the Internal Revenue Service of its outstanding bonds.
Representing various letter of credit banks in connection with tax-exempt bond issues for healthcare providers located throughout the Midwest.

Financing Sophistication

General and specialty hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and community-based providers are among the organizations that benefit from our financing sophistication, which includes derivatives, swaps and pooling transactions. Your organization can secure the most advantageous terms through our experience with derivative transactions. If you undertake a swap transaction, rely on us to review the swap documentation, prepare the appropriate resolutions for board approval authorizing the swap transaction, and issue the required opinions. Because our lawyers work with some of the industry’s leading underwriters – including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup – we will help you to maximize collateral value and achieve the public purposes of tax-exempt financing.

Innovative Approach

Pooling is one of the most innovative tax-exempt financing techniques available, and one we have helped many healthcare clients use to their advantage. Rather than be constrained by the $150 million limit on non-hospital bonds that healthcare organizations face, a pooling arrangement allows you to expand your financing capacity by undertaking a joint tax-exempt financing transaction with another healthcare organization. Chicago’s two largest academic medical centers participated in just such a mutually beneficial arrangement with our help.

Commercial Lending

Our commercial lending client base includes leading local, regional, and national financial institutions that provide secured and mezzanine debt financing to healthcare ventures. As advisers on transactional work, the lawyers in our corporate group work with you to handle the documentation and negotiation of loans, letters of credit, asset-based financing, syndications, special purpose financing and all other commercial finance lending. You get advice on all aspects of lender due diligence to evaluate risks and balance business, operational and legal needs. You also get the additional resources and advantages of solid healthcare industry experience throughout all departments of the firm.

Private Equity And Debt Finance

A growing number of private equity funds, venture capital firms, leveraged buy-out groups and angel investors are providing debt and equity financing to the healthcare industry. Ungaretti & Harris lawyers connect people, money and investment needs, typified by our work with one of the leading private equity funds focused solely on the healthcare industry. You’ll get a practical business approach to what works best for your financing needs, backed by an absolute commitment to quality and cost-effectiveness.

If you are a healthcare industry supplier organization, you can rely on our vast experience at identifying funding sources, negotiating the terms of initial and follow-on debt or equity financings, and structuring all management arrangements for investment oversight. If your company is looking to undertake a middle-market financing transaction, we can work with your needs just as we did in these transactions:

A total of $123 million senior secured term loan and revolving credit facility for a medical device manufacturer.
A private equity healthcare accounts receivable management company’s $27 million refinancing for the acquisition via subsidiary merger of a national leader in healthcare accounts receivable management.
A California-based healthcare finance firm’s financing transaction with three different private equity and venture capital firms.

Right Partner

Effective healthcare finance is a matter of finding the right partner. For consistent success you need counsel who has the investor and financial institution contacts, negotiating savvy, innovative capabilities and nationwide scope to get the deal done – when, where and how you need it. Ungaretti & Harris gives you that kind of across-the-board assistance.