Originally reported by law.com, the $24 billion acquisition of AirtTrunk by Blackstone is the biggest acquisition deal conducted in Australia so far this year and amounts to the second-largest private capital merger and acquisition deal in Australian history, KWM said.

As first detailed by the US-based publication, Blackstone was represented by New York City-headquartered international firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and KWM. Allens represented the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, while Baker McKenzie acted for the sellers, Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) and Public Sector Pension Investments (PSP Investments) Board.

The deal is also especially pertinent given expectations that, in the coming five years, there will be approximately US$1 trillion of capital expenditures in the US to build and facilitate new data centres, with another US$1 trillion of capital expenditures outside the US, Blackstone mused.

This acquisition represents, Blackstone declared, the global firm’s largest investment in the Asia-Pacific region.

Blackstone Infrastructure global head Sean Klimczak and Blackstone Real Estate global co-head Nadeem Meghji said: “Digital infrastructure is experiencing unprecedented demand driven by the AI revolution as well as the broader digitisation of the economy.

“Prior to AirTrunk, Blackstone’s portfolio consisted of US$55 billion of data centres, including facilities under construction, along with over US$70 billion in prospective pipeline development. We look forward to partnering with the outstanding AirTrunk management team to further accelerate its growth.”

AirTrunk founder and chief executive Robin Khuda (pictured) said: “This transaction evidences the strength of the AirTrunk platform in a strong-performing sector as we capture the next wave of growth from cloud services and AI and support the energy transition in Asia-Pacific.

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“We look forward to working with Blackstone and CPP Investments and benefiting from their scale capital, sector expertise and valuable network across the various local markets, which will help support the continued expansion of AirTrunk.”

Macquarie Asset Management APAC co-head of infrastructure Ani Satchcroft said: “The AirTrunk story is one of genuine partnership between MAM, PSP Investments and AirTrunk’s world-class team. Our journey with AirTrunk, and the drive and foresight of our teams in Asia-Pacific, has resulted in AirTrunk expanding its footprint across key markets in the region, achieving a more than eightfold increase in contracted capacity.

“Today’s transaction demonstrates MAM’s ability to identify, invest in, and nurture digital infrastructure assets that are resilient, scalable and pivotal in meeting today’s burgeoning demand for data, cloud services and the adoption of artificial intelligence.”

PSP Investments managing director and global head of infrastructure investments Sandiren Curthan said: “Our successful collaboration with MAM and the AirTrunk management team has enabled AirTrunk to become a market-leading independent hyperscale data centre platform in Asia-Pacific from a customer experience, operational and sustainability standpoint.”

KWM partner Alex Elser said: “It has been a privilege to be able to work with the Blackstone team and help them leverage their global platform and expertise to ultimately achieve success in such a highly competitive sale process and one of the highest conviction sectors right now.”

Fellow KWM partner Yuen-Yee Cho said: “Data centres are one of the most interesting and dynamic sectors in the market, and Blackstone’s success shows their conviction in the sector.

“It was fantastic to support the Blackstone team and also to see the level of bank support to finance the transaction. Congratulations to all parties involved.”

According to reports, the Allens team was led by partners Wendy Rae and Michelle Bennett, and the Bakers team was led by partners Simon De Young and Lewis Apostolou, Eric Thianpiriya and Michael Kunstler.

The transaction is subject to approval from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board.