Celyn Evans

Kirkland & Ellis advised Singaporean Sovereign Wealth Fund, GIC, on the £694 million acquisition of a 75 percent stake in the majority of Paddington Central assets from British Land. The transaction establishes a new joint venture with an ownership split 75:25 for GIC and British Land respectively. The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Celyn Evans, Annette Baillie, Nick-Raj Birdi and Matthew Elliott, debt finance partner Kazik Michalski and tax partners Tim Lowe and Cian O'Connor.

Apr 26

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis is advising GIC on a circa $15 billion joint venture (JV) with Equinix, Inc. and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) to capitalise, acquire and develop a U.S. centric digital infrastructure platform. Driven by increasing artificial intelligence and cloud growth, the JV is intended to accelerate the Equinix xScale data center portfolio by purchasing land to build new state-of-the-art xScale facilities on multiple greater-than-100-megawatt campuses in the U.S., eventually adding more than 1.5 gigawatts of new capacity for hyperscale customers. Under the terms of the agreement, CPP Investments and GIC will each control a 37.5% equity interest in the JV, and Equinix will own a 25% equity interest. The closing of the JV is subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals, which are expected to be received in the fourth quarter of 2024. Read GIC’s press release The Kirkland team is led by corporate lawyers Celyn Evans, Miroslav Tomo, Matthew Elliott, James Hunn, Shaun Chung and Isabel Lee; real estate lawyers Christopher Hartmann, Samuel Zaretsky and Brandon Hemans; and tax lawyers Justin Barbosa, Mike Beinus and Callum Burnett.

Oct 4

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis is advising AXA IM Alts, acting on behalf of its clients, on the sale of Data4 to Brookfield Infrastructure. Data4 is a European specialist in financing, designing, building and operating its own data centres across Europe. Read AXA IM Alts’ press release The Kirkland team is led by corporate partners Louis Gosset, Vincent Ponsonnaille, Matthew Elliott and Celyn Evans and associates François Capoul, Luke Forryan, Amanda Levi Acobas and Etienne Vautier; debt finance partner Kalish Mullen and associate Benjamin Lewis; antitrust partner Alasdair Balfour; technology & IP transactions partners Jacqueline Clover, Emma Flett and Joanna Thomson and associate Elizabeth Wauchope; and ESG & impact associate Aladdin Benali.

Apr 13

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis is advising GIC, a global institutional investor, on its capital investment in Hotel Investment Partners (HIP), a leading owner of resort hotels in Southern Europe. GIC will become an approximately 35% shareholder, with funds managed by Blackstone continuing to be a majority shareholder in HIP, with approximately 65% ownership of the company. Read GIC’s Press Release The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Celyn Evans and Matthew Elliott. The team included corporate partners James Hunn, Hamesh Khatkar and Claire Rushton and associates Jamie Gordon, Oliver Newling, Claudia Carr and Talodabioluwa Olu-Odugbemi; debt finance partners Kazik Michalski and Yasmin Smedley and associate Sara Topa; tax partners Mavnick Nerwal and Frixos Hatjantonas and associate Michael Akpomiemie; and technology & IP transactions partner Joanna Thomson.

Nov 2

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised Digital 9 Infrastructure plc on entering into a definitive agreement to sell its entire stake in the Verne Global group of companies to funds managed or advised by Ardian France SA for an equity purchase price of up to $575 million. The transaction is subject to merger approval and FDI in Finland and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024. Read the London Stock Exchange announcement The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Celyn Evans, Hamesh Khatkar, Dana Abdulkarim and Matthew Elliott, with support from corporate partner Emma Shelston and associates Yoana Georgieva and Oliver Weighill; investment funds partners Aleks Bakic, Catherine Gokah and Paul Sampson; tax partners Mavnick Nerwal and Ed Moberly; debt finance partner James Boswell; and antitrust & competition partner Mark Gardner.

Nov 28

1 min