Carlyle’s Bill Conway and Murphy Sell DigiPlex to Silicon Valley Data Center Platform
Posted on 09/05/2021
Oslo, Norway-based DigiPlex is a Nordic developer and operator of scalable data centers. DigiPlex operates eight data centers across campuses in the key Nordic markets of Oslo, Norway; Stockholm, Sweden; and Copenhagen, Denmark. DigiPlex is the largest data center operator in Norway. On July 7, 2021, affiliates of IPI Partners, LLC moved to buy 100% ownership of all DigiPlex Group companies. IPI bought the company mostly through its IPI Partners II fund. The deal completed in August 2021. The sellers of DigiPlex are private equity firm Kitebrook Partners, a Washington D.C.-based firm led by Byrne Murphy and Bill Conway. Bill Conway is Co-Founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer, and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group.
Through the acquisition of DigiPlex, IPI will gain a significant market position in Northern Europe. DigiPlex is IPI’s second acquisition in Europe, following the purchase of Milan-based SUPERNAP Italia in February 2021. IPI specializes in acquiring, developing, leasing, and operating critical digital infrastructure assets to serve the needs of large, high quality technology companies globally. Co-sponsored by ICONIQ Capital, LLC and an affiliate of Iron Point Partners, LLC, as a joint venture manager, IPI Partners leverages the combined leadership, strategic experience and global network of its sponsoring firms. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is a long-time client of ICONIQ Capital.
DigiPlex was able to fund much of its expansion through issuing bonds. In addition, the Nordic region is home to cheaper, renewable power and natural cooling for tech companies like Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon Web Services), Facebook, Inc., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc. (owns Google Cloud), and Microsoft Corporation (owns Microsoft Azure).
Advisors
RBC Capital Markets served as the exclusive financial advisor while Latham & Watkins and Wikborg Rein served as legal advisors to DigiPlex in connection with this transaction. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Schjodt, and Lundgrens served as legal advisors to IPI. Deutsche Bank Credit Solutions and Direct Lending acted as Mandated Lead Arranger. Linklaters has advised IPI Partners on debt financing for the acquisition of DigiPlex. Deutsche Bank and ING acted as mandated lead arrangers on the financing and GLAS as agent and security agent.
On the U.S. front, IPI Partners combined the data centers it had acquired from T5 Data Centers and Infomrat, to create Stack Infrastructure.
