The Bond Buyer has selected a $1.13 billion deal to finance the separation of Vanderbilt University Medical Center from Vanderbilt University — a transaction for which McGuireWoods was bond counsel — as the 2016 Southeast Region Deal of the Year. The award winners were honored during The Bond Buyer’s 15th annual Deal of the Year gala on Dec. 1.
The financing plan was essential to executing an agreement whereby the nationally renowned medical center will operate as a nonprofit corporation with its own governance while maintaining strategic ties to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Completing the separation required years of planning and the development of a unique financing plan that has positioned the medical center to operate more efficiently in the rapidly changing healthcare sector.
Lawyers from McGuireWoods played a key role in the transfer of assets from Vanderbilt University to the medical center, including the drafting of distinctive bond document provisions to protect the different interests of all stakeholders — the university, the medical center and bondholders. The complex deal consisted of approximately $777 million in tax-exempt and taxable fixed-rate revenue bonds, $100 million of taxable floating-rate notes, $50 million of reverse floater notes, and $150 million of bank direct placement debt.
The Bond Buyer noted that the deal “drew broad interest from financial institutions, providing attractive terms to launch the new VUMC with direct capital market access to compete effectively in today’s healthcare environment.”
Senior counsel Kevin Dougherty, who is based in New York, led McGuireWoods’ multi-office public finance team as bond counsel. The team also included New York partner John Semeniak, Washington, D.C.; senior counsel Robert Kaplan; Richmond partner Arthur Anderson; Tysons, Virginia, associate Amy Bolian; and Baltimore paralegal Barbara Larson.
McGuireWoods recently was named “Law Firm of the Year” for Banking and Finance Law in the 2017 edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms.” In addition, the firm had 19 lawyers listed in banking and finance law in the 2017 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, the most of any firm in the nation.