Public Finance
Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Authority - Jefferson County Funding
09/22
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$84.5 Million
Piper Sandler served as senior manager on an inaugural financing for Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Authority.
- The transaction funded a state-of-the-art, full-service ambulatory medical clinic that will provide healthcare services primarily to low-income residents of Jefferson County, Alabama.
- The primary source of security for the bonds are the pledged tax proceeds which are derived from an alcoholic beverage license tax and a sales and use tax levied in Jefferson County and are allocated by the County to provide healthcare services to its indigent population.
- The pledged revenues are levied by certain state statutes which limit the use of taxes to indigent healthcare in the County and provide for estimated coverage of over 10x.
- Piper Sandler anticipated a potential for rating agencies to ‘penalize’ the credit given the healthcare name and given our experience with other healthcare financings secured by tax revenues.
- Therefore, in order to achieve the highest attainable ratings on the bonds, we walked step-by-step through each of their rating criteria during our presentations to demonstrate how the structure of the bonds met their criteria and to ensure the rating on the bonds was based solely on the pledged tax proceeds and not on the obligor which had very little operating history.
- Specifically, pledged tax proceeds are directed directly to the trustee to pay debt service, and excess amounts may be transferred to Cooper Green for its operations. In addition, the bonds were structured with no recourse to Cooper Green or to its parent.
