King & Wood Mallesons, Allens, Baker McKenzie lawyers linked to $24b AirTrunk deal
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The news: Australian law firms Allens, Baker McKenzie and King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) acted on New York investment giant Blackstone's $24 billion acquisition of data centre operator AirTrunk in the biggest acquisition deal in Australia this year.
The context: New York firm Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett worked with KWM on advising Blackstone, with Allens advising the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Baker McKenzie acting for AirTrunk.
The deal values AirTrunk at more than double Australian peers NextDC or Canberra Data Centres.
AirTrunk has 11 facilities, fewer than either NextDC or CDC. But its centres are spread across the APAC region, including Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and are all built large enough to be attractive to the likes of Microsoft and Google.
Allens partners Wendy Rae and Michelle Bennett worked on the deal, with Baker McKenzie's team led by partners Simon De Young and Lewis Apostolou, Eric Thianpiriya and Michael Kunstler, according to reports by Law.Com.
KWM's team worked closely with Blackstone APAC and global legal teams and was led by Alex Elser and Gareth Howe for mergers and acquisitions, Yuen-Yee Cho and Dan Flanagan who are part of the firm's finance team, and Tim Sherman and Victoria Lanyon who are in its tax practice.
What they said: In a statement, KWM's Elser said: “It has been a privilege to be able to work with the Blackstone team and help them leverage their global platform and expertise to ultimately achieve success in such a highly competitive sale process and one of the highest conviction sectors right now".
Cho said: “Data centres are one of the most interesting and dynamic sectors in the market and Blackstone’s success shows their conviction in the sector".
"It was fantastic to support the Blackstone team and also to see the level of bank support to finance the transaction. Congratulations to all parties involved," she said.
The sources: King & Wood Mallesons , Law.Com
