Allens has advised La Caisse, a global investment group based in Québec, Canada, on its $1.7 billion commitment in hybrid securities to be issued by NEXTDC Limited, Australia's largest listed data centre developer.
The hybrid securities will provide flexible, long term capital to support NEXTDC's expanding pipeline of data centre developments across Australia, responding to surging demand for digital infrastructure driven by AI.
'This transaction reflects the increasing alignment between digital infrastructure and long-term infrastructure capital, underpinned by strong fundamentals and long duration demand,' said lead partner James Darcy.
'We continue to see growing appetite from institutional investors for long-dated, infrastructure-style capital solutions to support digital infrastructure assets, particularly in the data centre sector.'
'The transaction further reinforces the underlying strength of Australia as a location for AI infrastructure investment and growth,' said partner and co-head of Allens' corporate practice, Gavin Smith.
The deal underscores Allens' market-leading role advising on complex and innovative debt capital markets transactions for institutional investors and acting on land-mark digital infrastructure and data centre transactions. Allens has advised on the overwhelming majority of hybrid capital transactions in Australia over the past 18 months.
