Yannick Beaudoin has 25 years of experience in infrastructure, energy, project development, project finance, and structured finance matters (he is involved in securitization programs of every significant asset class involving Québec assets).
Yannick acts on transformative, complex and highly innovative projects in Canada. He advises project proponents in the transportation, social infrastructure, alternative and renewable energy, power and health care sectors – as well as a wide range of fields, including transit, light rail and high speed train, toll roads, hospitals, education, wind, solar, battery storage, hydrogen, pipelines and urban redevelopment.
He leads projects using all types of project delivery modes, whether structured as a private or public project, including both traditional and collaborative approaches, and specifically Design-Build-Finance- Operate-Maintenance (and all of its alterations), Public-Private Partnership, Collaborative delivery with shared risk/reward, Progressive Design-Build, Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (including EPCM), Framework Agreements and Construction Management Agency.
As part of one of the leading infrastructure and capital project legal teams in Canada, Yannick and the broader Bennett Jones' team have experience working with both public and private sector clients, and he understands how to work jointly with project teams to successfully deliver projects on time and on budget.
Yannick has a demonstrated track record of success, having successfully closed leading and major projects over the years. This allows him to share insights and best practices, leveraging insights gained from previous collaborations, while allowing the team to anticipate challenges and implement best practices. Lessons learned from past projects contribute to better outcomes.
Yanick also assists clients (whether private partner, its members, sponsors, subcontractors, third party participants (Indigenous Peoples, governments, cities and municipalities) to secure billions of dollars of debt, using various structures and instruments. He acted on behalf of lenders and borrowers on a wide range of Canadian infrastructure projects, with experience to manage multi-billion dollar, sophisticated financing structures applied to inherently complicated transactions.
Yannick regularly acts on projects requiring financings involving third-party debt and equity capital invested at different corporate levels, at different times in the project lifecycle, and involving various government policy incentives, such as loan guarantees, and the monetization of various environmental and tax attributes credits, with equity and quasi-equity capital solutions that include convertible debt instruments, preferred and structured preferred stock, and warrants coupled with debt financing components.
Over the years, Yannick assisted sponsors, equity investors, underwriters and lenders in structuring transactions to responding to rating agency inquiries, and requests to achieve targeted ratings. He has closed several simultaneous combined bank/bond project financings, including offerings in Canada and coordination of counsel for offerings internationally, and is familiar with the unique intercreditor issues and scheduling required to successfully achieve financial close.
Lastly, Yannick acted for sponsors and joint-venture partners in connection with energy-related projects and infrastructure enabling matters. He advises clients on the structuring, feasibility and the operation of energy related projects in Quebec, from assisting them in developing their process and template agreements to helping them obtain the various permits and licences required for their contemplated activities.
In short, Yannick shepherded complicated multiparty project and financing transactions to successful conclusions and counseled clients on terms to ensure bankability, certainty of funding and operational flexibility while addressing lender protections and concerns.
Canadian and international legal directories consistently recognize Yannick as a leading lawyer in his areas of practice. The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory ranks him in project finance, infrastructure law, banking & finance, and all aspects of asset financing. IFLR1000 includes him in banking & finance and real estate. The cross-border Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada rank Yannick in project finance.
Prior to joining Bennett Jones, Yannick was a partner at another Canadian national law firm in Montréal.
Bennett Jones