Erin A. Sutton

Experience

Bond Counsel for $1.16 Billion Health Care Financing

Client: Bon Secours Mercy Health, Inc.

We served as bond counsel for Bon Secours Mercy Health, Inc., one of the nation’s 20 largest health care systems, with respect to the issuance of several series of bonds totaling $1.16 billion in aggregate principal amount. As bond counsel, we assisted with each step of the financing process, which involved the public offering of municipal tax-exempt and corporate taxable bonds involving issuers in three states. The bonds were issued in April of 2020 and enabled the financing or refinancing of health care facilities in Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia while also contributing to the re-opening of the capital markets for health care borrowers during the COVID-19 pandemic. These combined bond deals were selected by The Bond Buyer as its 2020 Deal of the Year in the Health Care Financing Category.

$20.9 million bonds for National Church Residences Flexible Bond Program

We served as bond counsel for National Church Residences, an Ohio nonprofit corporation that specializes in the development, construction and management of affordable and market rate housing for seniors in its 330+ facilities located in 28 states and Puerto Rico. In these transactions, we worked with our client - and its special purpose financial advisor - to create a flexible bond program. This allows separate series of bonds to be issued by the Public Finance Authority, a multi-jurisdictional issuer, for the benefit of various affiliates of our client.

One of the unique aspects of these transactions is that tax-exempt or taxable bonds for the benefit of different borrower-affiliates may be issued under a common master bond indenture, which allows for bonds of each series to be issued relatively quickly and efficiently for the benefit of our client and its affiliates. This enables our client to coordinate their capital needs with their acquisition and/or construction schedules.

Underwriter’s Counsel for Unique Tender Offer and issuance of $125 million revenue bond

We served as Underwriter’s Counsel to our client, RBC Capital Markets (Underwriter) in connection with the issuance of tax-exempt revenue bonds for Ashland Hospital Corporation d/b/a King’s Daughters Medical Center. The medical center is a 465-licensed bed acute care hospital, with related facilities, located in the northwest region of Kentucky. In this transaction, a portion of the proceeds of the Series 2014 Bonds was used to finance the costs of the purchase of bonds previously issued for the benefit of the client (Tendered Bonds). The Tendered Bonds were obtained by the client through a successful tender process with the assistance of the Underwriter and Dinsmore pursuant to an Invitation to Tender Bonds filed with the MSRB’s electronic municipal market access system.

Other Representative Deals

$74,380,000 Michigan Finance Authority Hospital Revenue Refunding Bonds (Bronson Healthcare Group, Inc.), Series 2019A

$63,670,000 Michigan Finance Authority Hospital Revenue Bonds (Bronson Healthcare Group, Inc.), Series 2019B

$59,715,000 Michigan Finance Authority Hospital Revenue Bonds (Bronson Healthcare Group, Inc.), Series 2019C

$44,095,000 City of Middleburg Heights, Ohio Hospital Facilities Improvement and Refunding Revenue Bonds, Series 2020A (Southwest General Health Center Project) (Tax-Exempt)

$26,040,000 City of Middleburg Heights, Ohio Hospital Facilities Refunding Revenue Bonds, Series 2020B (Southwest General Health Center Project) (Federally Taxable)

$10,325,000 Lorain County Port Authority Economic Development Facilities Revenue Refunding Bonds, Series 2021A (Kendal at Oberlin)

$3,500,000 Lorain County Port Authority Economic Development Facilities Revenue Refunding Bonds, Series 2021B (Kendal at Oberlin)

$94,420,000 South Carolina Jobs-Economic Development Authority Hospital Facilities Revenue Bonds, Series 2022A (Bon Secours Mercy Health, Inc.) dated September 29, 2022

$96,355,000 Virginia Small Business Financing Authority Health Facilities Revenue Bonds, Series 2022A (Bon Secours Mercy Health, Inc.) dated September 29, 2022

$213,320,000 County of Allen, Ohio Hospital Facilities Revenue Bonds, Series 2022B (Bon Secours Mercy Health, Inc.)

$47,970,000 County of Franklin, Ohio Health Care Facilities Revenue Refunding Bonds, Series 2022 (First Community Village Obligated Group)

$59,925,000 County of Franklin, Ohio Health Care Facilities Revenue Bonds, Series 2023 (Ohio Living Communities)