Penta Berlin acquired the Berlin-based datacenter from DB Systel GmbH, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn group.
Global law firm Dentons advised Penta-Infra Datacenter Holding B.V. on the acquisition of DB Systel Datacenters in Berlin. Bennbrooke and Penta participated in the competitive auction sponsored by Deutsche Bahn and were selected as the winners. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price. The transaction will close on January 1, 2018.
Penta Berlin GmbH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Penta-Infra Datacenter Holding B.V., an investor specializing in data centers and based in the Netherlands. Bennbrooke and Penta plan to further develop and expand the site based on client requirements. Given the currently available IT-spaces, both short-term client requests as well as aggregate, long-term and client-specific developments will all be able to be serviced from the site.
For three years, the datacenter will continue to be operated by DB Systel, the digital subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn. Approximately 480 DB-employees will be directly or indirectly affected by the planned sale of the data center and the migration into the cloud. There are 258 employees working at the Mahlsdorf site, the majority of whom will be seamlessly integrated into new, future-oriented activities at DB Systel. A Dentons team led by partner Dr. Christoph Papenheim in Frankfurt advised Penta on the purchase and rental agreements for the computing center. Papenheim previously advised Penta-Infra Datacenter on the purchase of a property in Leipzig and the construction of a datacenter on that property.
Advisors Bennbrooke/Penta-Infra Datacenter:
Dentons (Frankfurt): Dr. Christoph Papenheim (Lead Partner, Corporate/M&A), Michael Graf (Partner, Tax), Dr. Andrej Latinovic (Counsel/Real Estate), Thomas Voss (Counsel, Tax), Thomas Treffer (Associate, Tax), Dr. Anja Tschierschke (Senior Associate), Ariane Theissen (Associate), Lin Liu (Associate, all Corporate)
Dentons (Berlin): Michael Helm (Partner), Andreas Liesinger (Associate, both Tax).
