TORONTO – Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Equinix, Inc. have signed a deal to buy data centre company atNorth from Partners Group.
The agreement values atNorth at an enterprise value of US$4 billion.
CPP Investments will invest approximately US$1.6 billion, owning an about a 60 per cent controlling interest, while Equinix will own about 40 per cent.
AtNorth’s portfolio includes eight operational data centers as well as several sites under development across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
As part of the deal, CPP Investments and Equinix have provisionally agreed to a US$4.2-billion financing package to fund the transaction as well as to pay for an expansion of the business.
Maximilian Biagosch, senior managing director and global head of real Assets at CPP Investments, says the deal builds on the fund’s long-standing relationship with Equinix.
“The Nordics are an attractive market for data centre growth and the opportunity to partner with Equinix on this acquisition allows us to deploy capital at scale into a high-quality platform, helping us deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns for CPP contributors and beneficiaries,” Biagosch said in a statement.
