Allen & Gledhill, Baker McKenzie , Clifford Chance and Shook Lin & Bok have advised on the landmark SGD988 million (USD773 million) IPO of the NTT DC REIT on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on 14 July, making it the largest REIT listing on the SGX in more than a decade.
London-based corporate partners James Adams and Charles Whitefoord led a Baker McKenzie team as international counsel advising on the carve-out and listing of NTT DC REIT, a platform of six stabilised data centre assets in the US, Austria and Singapore sponsored by Japan’s NTT DATA Group’s subsidiary NTT Limited.
Adams told Asia Business Law Journal that this was an important transaction that provided NTT a path to unlock capital from its stabilised assets to power the continued development of its future pipeline.
“People have been grappling with the question of how to recycle capital from data centres and this transaction will have a lot of attention in the market,” said Adams, whose deal team also worked closely with the in-house team at NTT Global Data Centres in structuring the transaction.
NTT DC REIT has also mandated Allen & Gledhill, who acted as Singapore legal counsel with a team led by managing partner Jerry Koh together with partners Chua Bor Jern and Victoria Leong.
Koh told Asia Business Law Journal that the transaction reinforced the city-state’s position as a regional hub for data centre investments.
“We also anticipate this transaction to pave the way for increased IPOs and REIT activity, reflecting continued investor confidence in Singapore’s capital markets,” said Koh.
The IPO raised SGD988 million from new investors. The listed REIT comprises a portfolio of six data centre assets located in the US, Austria and Singapore. NTT retained a stake in the REIT and will manage it through NTT DC REIT Manager.
Clifford Chance advised the issue’s joint managers, joint global co-ordinators, bookrunners and underwriters, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Mizuho, Citigroup and DBS. The Clifford Chance team was led by partner Jean Thio.
Shook Lin & Bok acted as Singapore legal adviser to the trustee.
The deal is the latest in a series of data centre transactions for NTT.
AloJapan.com