Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie advised Equinix Inc., the global interconnection and data center company, on its US $ 1 billion joint venture with GIC, Singapore’s global wealth fund, to develop and operate xScaleTM data centres in Japan. The deal, signed on 18 April 2020, is announced today.
The three initial facilities in the joint venture – one in Osaka and two in Tokyo – will serve the unique core workload deployment needs of a targeted group of hyperscale companies, including the world’s largest cloud service providers, and streamline their continued growth, as well as strengthening Equinix’s leadership position in supporting the cloud ecosystem.
The Baker McKenzie team was led by London corporate partners David Hart, Kirsty Wilson, and Charles Whitefoord, alongside associates, Oliver Feslier Holmes, Saskia Volhard, Amanda Waley and Tom Bernhardt. Baker McKenzie’s commercial team was led out of Sydney by partner Anne Petterd and senior associate Simone Blackadder. Japanese firm Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu provided local advice, through partners Makoto Saito and Yoshihisa Watanabe.
The Baker McKenzie team worked closely with Equinix’s internal legal team led by Andrew Sterneberg, working alongside the APAC legal team of Yolande Goh, Takeshi Miwa and James Wong.
A Kirkland & Ellis team led by Celyn Evans, Matthew Elliott and Annette Baillie advised GIC.
Commenting on the transaction, David Hart says: “We’re delighted to have partnered with Equinix once again on its second xScaleTM joint venture, further deepening our close relationship with the Equinix team. Executing a complex, global transaction in the current climate was challenging, but thanks to our global platform we were well placed to manage and successfully deliver this transaction for our client. We wish the Equinix and GIC teams well in this venture and their developing partnership.”
Last year the same Baker McKenzie technology M&A team advised Equinix on its first US $ 1 billion initial joint venture which was also with GIC, to develop and operate xScaleTM data centres in Europe.
