Slaughter and May is advising Equinix, Inc. on the sale of eight assets in its European business to Digital Realty Trust, Inc. for $874.4 million. The sale was a condition of the clearance from the European Commission for the acquisition of Telecity Group plc by Equinix in January 2016, on which Slaughter and May also advised.

The Equinix legal team was led by EMEA General Counsel Peter Waters along with legal counsel Nick Greaves and Heimold Nemec.

The sale is subject to certain customary closing conditions, including approval by the European Commission, as well as completion of a works council consultation process in the Netherlands. Upon satisfaction of those conditions, the transaction is expected to close in Q3 2016.

Additionally, Equinix has separately negotiated with Digital Realty a binding option for Equinix to acquire Digital Realty's operating business including its real estate and facility in St. Denis, Paris where Equinix has an established presence with its PA2 and PA3 data centres. The option, on which Slaughter and May also advised, is subject to certain conditions, including confirmatory due diligence by Equinix and any mandatory governmental or local authority approvals or employee consultation procedures. Subject to those conditions, the acquisition is expected to complete in the second half of 2016.

Equinix is a leading global data centre provider operating 145 data centre facilities in 40 markets across 5 continents. It is a US Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) headquartered in Redwood City, California and listed on NASDAQ with a market capitalisation in excess of $23 billion.

Slaughter and May worked as a joint team with RBC Capital Markets as well as members of the European Best Friends network, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in the Netherlands and Hengeler Mueller in Germany.
Contacts

Corporate: Richard Smith (partner), Natalie Cook (associate), Nicola Lindop (associate), James Cook (associate), Edward Steward (associate), Max Schofield (associate), Jack Gray (associate), Matthew Calvert (trainee), Francesca Parker (trainee), Jack Dickie (trainee); Competition: Philippe Chappatte (partner), Anish Narendran (associate), Zsolt Vertessy (associate), Felicity Mithen (associate), Ignacio Cesar Mora (associate); Real Estate and Environmental: John Nevin (partner), Samantha Brady (senior counsel), Lee Foxcroft (associate), Richard Keczkes (associate), Hemita Sumanasuriya (trainee); Intellectual Property/Information Technology: Rob Sumroy (partner), Laura Houston (associate), Richard McDonnell (associate), Emma Haywood (associate), Kate Gaplevskaja (associate); Tax: Mike Lane (partner), Gregory Price (associate); Pension and Employment: Jonathan Fenn (partner), Chris Boyle (associate); Financing: Matthew Tobin (partner), Charlotte Ferard (associate)