Digital infrastructure

Sectors
Telecoms
Digital infrastructure

A market-leading digital infrastructure offering

Linklaters has been involved in some of the digital infrastructure sector’s biggest deals for many years. The remit of the team has widened as the market has grown to incorporate a growing number of digital infrastructure assets, including data centres, fibre, towers and satellites. These transactions often involve multiple complexities of bespoke corporate and financing structures, a regulated sector in relation to both telecoms and investments, and key commercial contracts, playing into the combined strengths of our market leading corporate, finance, telecoms and regulatory teams.

Our expertise within this sector includes joint ventures, carve-outs, acquisitions, asset/capex and structured financing, together with advice in relation to commercial/customer contracts, real estate and regulatory matters.

The team has a real depth and breadth of experience, regularly advising corporates, funds and financial institutions on their most high-profile, complex and innovative deals. This experience ensures that our clients benefit from tactical advice based on the latest market precedents.

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Europe Digital Infrastructure M&A Legal Adviser
TMT Finance M&A Awards 2023

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Europe Fibre Deal of the Year
Virgin Media O2 FTTH (UK) NexFibre
TMT Finance M&A Awards 2023

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Digital Infrastructure Acquisition of the Year, MENA
Oman Telecommunications Company's Towers Portfolio
IJ Global Awards 2023

Selected data centre highlights

Vantage Data Centers:

European and APAC platforms: advising on the establishment of their European and APAC data centre and colocation platforms, supported by a consortium of investors including DigitalBridge, as well as advising on strategic investments and a series of subsequent non-core disposals.

Etix Everywhere: advising on the acquisition of Etix Everywhere, a provider of colocation services through its global network of hyperscale, edge and HPC data centres.

Next Generation Data: advising on the acquisition of Next Generation Data, a purpose-built, carrier-neutral Tier III data centre facility in Wales.

DigitalBridge:

AtlasEdge: advising on its joint venture with Liberty Global and Telefónica to create AtlasEdge.

Scala Data Centers: advising on the establishment of Scala Data Centers, a Latin American hyperscale data centers platform headquartered in Brazil, through the acquisition of data centre and colocation assets from UOL Diveo.

AirTrunk: advising PSP and Macquarie Asia Infrastructure Fund on the acquisition of data centre specialist AirTrunk.
DigiPlex: advising IPI Partners on debt financing for the acquisition of DigiPlex, a leading owner and operator of data centres in the Nordics, with eight data centres across Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Nabiax's data centres: advising Actis on the acquisition of Nabiax's 11 data centres located in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru and USA.

Selected fibre highlights

NexFibre: advising InfraVia on its £4.5bn joint venture with Liberty Global and Telefónica in order to invest in an acceleration of the roll-out of the UK fibre network being rolled out by Virgin Media 02 and other operators.

Three UK/Vodafone UK merger: advising CK Hutchison on the merger of Three UK and Vodafone UK, combining their respective telecommunications operations in the UK to create the largest mobile operator in the UK.

Vodafone/Altice JV: advising Vodafone on the establishment of the €7bn joint venture with Altice Group for the deployment of fibre access infrastructure in Germany, and on the associated €4.6bn financing.

Mila: advising Ardian Infrastructure on the acquisition of Mila, the largest telecoms provider in Iceland that owns a comprehensive network comprised of fixed broadband, mobile access and backhaul covering the entire country.

Bluevia Fibra: advising Predica Prévoyance Dialogue du Crédit Agricole and Vauban Infrastructure Partners on the €1bn acquisition of a 45% stake in Bluevia Fibra, a company holding Telefónica's FTTH network mainly in Spanish rural areas.

InfraVia/eircom JV: advising the banks on the €1bn financing of a joint venture between InfraVia and eircom to create a dedicated fibre company focused on the deployment of FTTH across the Republic of Ireland.

TDC NET: advising the lenders on the EUR 3.3bn common debt platform for TDC NET that delivers mobile and fixed broadband infrastructure, with a focus on 5G and fibre roll-out.

GTT’s infrastructure division: advising I Squared Capital on the US$2.15bn acquisition of the infrastructure division of GTT Communications, which provides pan-European, North American, sub-sea and trans-Atlantic fibre network and data centre infrastructure services to customers.

Unsere Grüne Glasfaser: advising the banks on the €3.35bn financing of Unsere Grüne Glasfaser, a 50/50 joint venture of Allianz and Telefónica, in connection with the roll out of an open-access FTTH network across Germany.

Selected tower highlights

Vantage Towers: advising Vodafone on its €16.2bn strategic partnership with GIP and KKR and subsequent bid to acquire Vantage Towers.

Vantage Towers spin-off and IPO: advising Vodafone on the £18bn spin-off of Vodafone’s pan-European mast business to form Vantage Towers and on the subsequent €2.3bn listing of Vantage Towers on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

CK Hutchison’s towers assets in Europe: advising CK Hutchison on the €10bn sale of its large portfolio of telecommunications towers assets in Europe to Cellnex.

Arqiva: advising Arqiva (owned by a consortium of investors, including Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, CPPIB, IFM Investors and Whitehelm Capital) on the £2bn sale of its telecoms division (towers business) to Cellnex.
Sýn and Nova: advising DigitalBridge on its acquisition of the macro tower portfolios from Sýn (formerly Vodafone Iceland) and Nova, two of the largest mobile network operators in Iceland, and related financing.

EdgePoint Infrastructure: advising EdgePoint Infrastructure (a DigitalBridge-backed platform) on the US$750m sale-and-leaseback acquisition of more than 4,200 telecommunications towers from PT Indosat Tbk, one of Indonesia’s leading digital telecoms providers.

Zain telecoms towers: advising Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia (Zain KSC) on the c.US$1bn sale and leaseback of its entire portfolio of telecoms towers in Saudi Arabia to a consortium led by Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
ATC Europe: advising Allianz Capital Partners on the €530m acquisition of a 10% stake in ATC Europe from American Tower and long-term partnership.

Other highlights

Wildstone: advising DigitalBridge on the creation, growth and sale of the Wildstone, the leading owner of independent outdoor media infrastructure in the UK.
2Africa subsea cable: advising MTN on their participation in a consortium led by Meta to develop a subsea cable network to provide increased connectivity to the African continent.
CK Hutchison/EQT JV: advising CK Hutchison on the carve-out of Wind Tre’s mobile and fixed telecoms network into a joint venture, the investment by EQT of a 60% stake in the joint venture, and the entry into a long-term services agreement between the joint venture and Wind Tre’s retained retail telecoms business.
NEOM satellite project: advising NEOM on the establishment of a joint venture with OneWeb to provide Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity to support the network infrastructure for the smart city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Click here to find out more about satellites.