Energy as a Service and Municipal Bonds: What You Should Know

Hosted by The Bond Buyer and Orrick

Webinar | October.17.2024

Recording Available

Energy as a Service (EaaS) transactions are a category of innovative delivery model transactions that focus on the design, construction, financing and long-term maintenance and operations of energy assets, central utility plants, and energy efficiency improvements, as well as energy production and distribution. The energy production can be traditional or renewable. This is a mechanism for large facilities or campus owners to transfer the risk of delivering all of their heating, cooling, water, and energy operational services for a guaranteed level of service and energy savings to an expert that has the singular focus in delivering these types of projects for clients nationally and internationally.

Join us for our second annual webinar on EaaS where Orrick lawyers Charles Cardall, Robyn Helmlinger and Matthew Neuringer will engage with Christopher Elmore, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, and Blake Pinell, Director at RBC Capital Markets, to discuss the most common legal and document structures for these types of EaaS transactions utilized by governmental issuers and nonprofit borrowers of tax-exempt bonds. We will also focus on federal tax compliance for existing and future tax-exempt bonds, the way these transactions are treated under existing bond documents, and key EaaS benefits and considerations for issuers to keep front-of-mind when evaluating the suitability of a potential transaction.

This webinar will also examine two innovative energy transformation projects recently undertaken by Henry Ford Health and Adventist Health. Both projects employed an innovative not-for-profit tax-exempt financing solution, a first for such applications, aiming to minimize capital expenses and enhance the overall project scale.

Contacts

Charles C. Cardall Partner, Tax

San Francisco

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D:+1 415 773 5449
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Finance Sector
Tax

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Charles C. Cardall Partner

San Francisco

He also has legal experience relating to both charter schools and the federal income tax classification of governmental and quasi-governmental entities. He has consulted on thousands of tax-exempt, build America and tax credit bond issues and has developed deep knowledge in almost every tax aspect of municipal finance. Private activity bonds for multifamily housing, solid waste, charter schools and independent schools are areas of particular focus in his practice, as are higher education, short-term and long-term working capital and the various forms of pooled financings. Chas also has advised numerous clients experiencing financial distress or bankruptcy in tax matters relating to their municipal bonds. Representative active clients include the State of California, the University of California, the Bay Area Toll Authority, and Charter School Capital.

As a legal and policy advocate, Chas represents both government and non-government clients in federal tax rulemaking matters and in IRS proceedings, including the various types of tax-exempt bond audits, voluntary compliance (VCAP) requests and requests for private letter rulings. He has successfully closed IRS examinations relating to solid waste, water and wastewater, working capital, healthcare, pooled, multifamily housing, and industrial development bond financings. He has obtained multiple private letter rulings and technical advice memoranda and has been integrally involved in numerous regulation and legislative projects. He has found that a close working relationship with IRS and Treasury Department personnel often is critical to obtaining good results for clients.

Robyn L Helmlinger Partner, Public Finance, Health Care Finance

San Francisco

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D:+1 415 773 5925
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Finance Sector
Public Finance
Health Care Finance

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Robyn L Helmlinger Partner

San Francisco

Robyn regularly works with both established borrowers and first-time borrowers to assist with structuring and restructuring debt programs that encompass a wide variety of debt and derivative products. In 2015, Robyn led the team that represented a private fund in connection with financing the management transfer of a multi-hospital nonprofit healthcare system to a subsidiary of the private fund, including negotiations with existing creditors. The financing involved an innovative bond structure that balanced current and future committed liquidity needs and debt burden. Robyn is also continually recognized for her excellent and sound judgment with respect to disclosure issues, including the difficult disclosure decisions caused by financial pressures from healthcare reform, affiliation activities, pension liabilities, governmental inquiries and investigations, labor disputes and qualified audit opinions.

In 2013, Robyn was elected a Fellow of the American College of Bond Counsel. She is one of the founding members of the Northern California Chapter of Women in Public Finance and currently serves on its advisory board. As a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, Robyn has been a panelist on the Health Care Financing Panel at the annual conference in 2003, 2004 and 2006. She is also a member of the American Health Lawyers Association.

Matthew Neuringer Partner, Infrastructure, Transportation Finance

New York

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D:+1 212 506 5290
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Energy & Infrastructure Sector
Infrastructure
Transportation Finance
Solar Energy
Energy

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Matthew Neuringer Partner

New York

Matthew is recognized nationally and globally by Chambers USA, where clients describe him as “smart, organized and responsive and offers really good insight on key issues” and “he is an encyclopedia of PPP and he does an excellent job of leading tricky conversations and getting to a point where all parties agree.”

Prior to practicing law, Matthew worked as a hedge fund analyst and chief of staff in New York State government. Matthew's prior experience in finance and government enhances his ability to deliver legal advice through a commercial lens for private and public sector clients. Matthew has advised clients across a full spectrum of energy and infrastructure assets, including telecoms, rail, highways, airport, intermodal transit, combined heat and power, social infrastructure, and waste to energy. In Matthew's capacity as outside counsel to the Association for the Improvement of American Infrastructure (AIAI) Matthew has also provided input on various key pieces of federal, state and local governments on the sufficiency of their laws to produce P3 projects in their jurisdictions.