Clifford Chance has advised Investa Holding GmbH and ABRY Partners LLC, Boston, on the sale of an aggregate stake of 86.7% in e-shelter, Germany's largest data centre services operator, to Japan's NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com).
Real estate company Investa Holding currently owns 51% of e-shelter's issued shares and the remaining shares are owned by US private equity firm ABRY Partners, and other minority shareholders. Upon consummation of the acquisition, a 13.3% minority stake will be retained by Investa Holding GmbH, in which e-shelter founder and CEO Rupprecht Rittweger owns a controlling interest.
e-shelter designs, builds and operates highly-resilient data centers. The company employs around 350 people and operates a total of approximately 90,000 m² of data centre space, of which 60,000 m² alone is located at e-shelter's main site in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, making it Europe's largest single data center site. Additional sites are located in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Zurich. e-shelter's customers include financial services and telecommunications companies, as well as IT and cloud service providers
NTT Com operates more than 130 secure data centers worldwide. In addition, NTT Com provides a wide range of globally standardized services, including platforms for hosting, as well as network and security services.
The Clifford Chance team was led by partners Joachim Hasselbach (Private Equity), Dr. Uwe Schimmelschmidt (Tax) and Cornelia Thaler (Real Estate) and included associates Paul Bock (Private Equity), Manuel Lomb and Bernd Baumer (both Real Estate), counsel Anette Hofmann (Tax) - all Frankfurt -, senior transaction lawyer Katrin Rotering (Real Estate), counsel Cord von Mandelsloh (Tax) and partner Marc Besen (Antitrust) - all Düsseldorf - as well as associates Lauren Harris and Clara Herrenschmidt (both Corporate, Luxembourg).
Clifford Chance has been advising Investa for several years and e-shelter Group since its formation in 2000. A team led by Joachim Hasselbach, Dr. Uwe Schimmelschmidt and Cornelia Thaler last advised e-shelter in 2011 on the acquisition of a stake in e-shelter by ABRY Partners and a team led by Cornelia Thaler and Christian Trenkel simultaneously advised it on the completion of a structured financing in the amount of EUR 229 million.
