Allens has advised a syndicate of domestic and international banks on a senior secured financing package to support Pacific Equity Partners' (PEP) acquisition of a 75% interest in the data centre business of Spark New Zealand.
As part of the transaction, PEP (through its Secure Asset Fund) and Spark have established a new standalone company called TenPeaks Limited, which holds the data centre assets and operations. Spark has retained a 25% indirect interest in TenPeaks Limited and is one of its key customers.
The financing package provides key financial support to the growth of TenPeaks, which is currently comprised of 11 facilities across New Zealand and which is intended to scale rapidly in the near term through greenfield developments across multiple campuses in Auckland.
Allens advised the financiers on all aspects of the financing, with support from Buddle Findlay as New Zealand counsel.
'We are delighted to have worked with the lenders and PEP on this milestone transaction in New Zealand's digital infrastructure landscape,' said lead partner Tim Stewart.
'The strong support and engagement from lenders on this transaction shows lenders are keen to play a part in driving the expansion of critical data centre infrastructure as demand for cloud technologies and AI capabilities rapidly increases.'
The advice builds on Allens' market-leading experience advising on complex finance transactions in the digital infrastructure and telecommunication sector, with the firm having recently advised lenders on the $3.1bn refinancing of Intellihub, a 50/50 joint venture between Pacific Equity Partners and Brookfield Asset Management.
