Overview

Digital infrastructure investors, lenders, developers, operators, and end users turn to Mayer Brown’s global Digital Infrastructure team for strategic legal advice on the commercial and technical issues facing the industry.

Industry Focus

Data Centers

We advise on the acquisition, development, disposition, and transition of data center properties and negotiate data center customer agreements, including leases, licenses, master services agreements and service level agreements (SLAs) globally.

Internet and Telecommunications Networks

We advise domestic and international companies on their internet communications network projects—whether terrestrial wireless, satellite or fiber. We advise entrepreneurs, network operators and service resellers on the regulatory and policy aspects of the procurement and provision of communication services.

Towers

We advise investors as well as tower companies in a broad range of transactions involving tower infrastructure, including the development, operation, acquisition, disposition and financing of towers and tower sites.

 

Core Transactional Teams

Projects and Infrastructure

We advise on all types of infrastructure transactions, from project development and financing to the purchase and sale of infrastructure assets and companies. We advise sponsors, lenders and public bodies on the financing, development, and management of greenfield assets and the buying, selling, leasing and financing of existing assets.

Real Estate

Our on-the-ground presence in markets throughout the world gives us a knowledge of local culture, business, and networks needed to address the most complex legal and business challenges in real estate—including capital-raising vehicles formation and transactions involving complex financing and joint-venture structures in multiple jurisdictions. Clients appreciate how we manage deals from all sides and anticipate shifts in the industry and market conditions.

M&A

Our Mergers & Acquisitions practice has extensive experience advising buyers and sellers in cross-border stock and asset acquisitions, minority investments, divestitures, and joint venture transactions and represents a broad spectrum of public and private companies, including many Fortune 500 companies and leading private equity and leveraged buyout firms, special committees, and management groups around the world.

Construction & Engineering

We have experience advising in traditional design-bid-build contracting of major digital infrastructure projects and with a variety of alternative delivery methodologies, including EPC, EPCM, IPD, PPP, and other contracts for unique and complex projects. We advise project sponsors, owners, contractors and sub-contractors, design professionals, consultants, lenders, and insurers.

 

Complementary Teams

Technology & IP Transactions

We draw on our extensive experience in critical services sourcing deals worth billions of dollars when advising clients on outsourcing, cloud, and digital transformation, including the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, platform agreements, SaaS and big data.

Data Privacy and Cybersecurity

The global array of cybersecurity and data privacy laws and regulations often overlap and sometimes contradict each other. Recognizing the complexity—and understanding the importance of compliance—we advise companies in establishing best practices related to data centers and other digital infrastructure.

State & Local Tax

We mitigate state and local tax risks and provide audit defense, offer legislative guidance, advise on complex business restructuring and on leveraging tax incentive programs for investors and operators, and assist with tax planning.

Energy

We advise developers, sponsors, financiers, independent power producers, transmission and distribution companies, and investors in transactions involving electric generation projects and assets across a full range of legal services. We also have a dedicated renewables group composed of lawyers who understand the technical and commercial issues involved in renewable projects and advise on challenging renewables mandates.

ESG

We advise clients with market-leading advice on adopting and integrating critical Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies for navigating complex and rapidly evolving ESG issues.

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Related Capabilities

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Experience

A sampling of our digital infrastructure experience includes the following:

Data Centers

The Americas

  • Represented a Fortune 500 fintech company on the sale and leaseback of its two owned data centers.
  • Represented a global infrastructure investment manager, in the acquisition of a leading data center and network solutions provider.
  • Represented a publicly traded data center owner, operator and developer in the acquisition of a portfolio of five data centers.
  • Represented an independent fund manager as lead investor in a $320 million preferred equity consortium investment in a provider of secure, connected data center and cloud solutions.
  • Represented a publicly traded data center owner, operator and developer in a joint venture for the acquisition and development of data center property.
  • Represented a senior lender in a $302 million construction financing of a data center in Virginia.
  • Represented a bank syndicate in a financing for the construction of data centers in Queretaro, Mexico.

EMEA

  • Represented a major data center operator on the acquisition of one of the largest single-site data centers in the United Kingdom.
  • Represented a global telecommunications company on the sale of its portfolio of data centers, from which it operates its colocation business, to a global operator and owner of infrastructure assets. The $1.1 billion deal included the sale of 13 data centers in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia and 18 in the United States.
  • Represented a major data center operator on the acquisition and development of a new data center in Amsterdam.

Asia

  • Represented a data center co-location provider in the negotiation of a turnkey lease in Singapore with a global data center owner.
  • Represented a social media company on regulatory guidance with the establishment of data center infrastructure in Hong Kong.
  • Represented a Chinese telecommunications company and a Chinese SOE on the establishment of two self-operated data centers including the negotiation of the lease and services agreements.
  • Represented a major developer in Hong Kong on a commercial agreement with an international data center and colocation provider on the construction and fitting out of a data center in the New Territories, Hong Kong.
  • Represented a major international corporation on the acquisition of its new Singapore data center.

Towers

The Americas

  • Represented a Canadian multinational bank, as lender, in a MXN$400 million senior loan granted to a Mexican asset management firm, for the acquisition of a telecom tower portfolio.
  • Represented a Spanish multinational financial services company as administrative agent, security agent, arranger and lender and Mexican branch of a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company as lender, in a MXN$1 billion loan facility provided to a Mexican telecommunications company to purchase telecommunication towers.
  • Represented a mobile phone network and home entertainment provider in the sale of 215 telecom towers situated in the Caribbean.

EMEA

  • Represented a syndicate of development finance institutions in relation to the acquisition and construction of telecommunications towers in Nigeria by an Africa-based telecom tower infrastructure company.
  • Advised a UK-based telecommunications tower company on the financing of mobile telecommunication towers in Ghana and Tanzania.

Internet and Telecommunication Networks

The Americas

  • Represented an internet service provider in its strategic partnership with an infrastructure investment firm, to support a $700 million fiber deployment plan across Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas.
  • Represented a private equity firm in the acquisition of a majority interest in a telecommunications infrastructure company that provides enterprise fiber, residential fiber, and fixed wireless services.
  • Represented a US cable television provider on the structuring of its sale of 49.99 percent of a fiber enterprise business to a private equity investor for an implied enterprise value of $3.2 billion.
  • Represented a syndicate of banks in a US$400 million financing for the construction of a subsea cable network connecting the US, Bermuda and three locations in Latin America.

EMEA

  • Represented a consortium of investors on the structuring of the sale of fiber assets in Europe.
  • Represented a telecommunications company, on a joint venture created to own and operate a transatlantic submarine cable system.
  • Represented a technology company involved in managed cloud computing, IP networking, information security, and data center services in the acquisition of telecommunication assets including a fiber network in the Baltic Sea and network operations centers in Russia and Estonia.

Asia

  • Represented a Chinese sovereign fund and a major PRC telecommunications company on the investment in a public private partnership project for building, operating and transferring a fiber-optic network in Kazakhstan.
  • Represented a syndicate of development finance institutions in a $300 million loan to a telecom provider in Myanmar to finance their rollout of telecom and data services across Myanmar.
  • Represented a leading PRC Bank on a US$200 million facility made to the third-largest telecommunications service provider company in the Philippines for the rollout and operation of its 4G/5G network in the Philippines.
  • Represented a telecommunications company in the negotiation of a construction contract for the Southeast Asian extension of the Pacific Crossing submarine telecommunications cable, a proposed bank financing of the backhaul network and negotiation of project contracts for backhaul networks.

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Americas
Asia
Europe