TRANSACTION VALUED AT $2.5 BILLION

US-based data center owner and operator, American Tower Corporation, has announced that Stonepeak, an infrastructure investment firm, will acquire an ownership interest of approximately 29% in American Tower’s US data center business.

Held as subsidiaries of American Tower, the company has a data center portfolio that consists of 27 data centers across 10 US markets with a total enterprise valuation of approximately $10.5 billion (USD).  Hence, the 29% interest acquisition deal with Stonepeak will be realized through a $2.5 billion investment in common equity and mandatorily convertible preferred equity.

“We are pleased to partner with Stonepeak in our U.S. data center business, where we expect to create value through growth in our highly interconnected, cloud on-ramp rich portfolio of data center assets,” Tom Bartlett, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Tower.

“While this transaction supports the equity financing component for our previously completed CoreSite acquisition, it also creates a platform through which growth opportunities can be strategically evaluated and financed, with American Tower and Stonepeak committed to executing on opportunities as the 5G ecosystem continues to develop.”

As part of the investment and related partnership agreement, American Tower will retain managerial and operational control, as well as daily oversight of its US data center business while Stonepeak will obtain certain governance rights.

“American Tower has established one of the premier network dense, interconnection-focused data center platforms in the U.S. through CoreSite and previous acquisitions, which we view as a great fit for our core infrastructure strategy,” said Andrew Thomas, Managing Director and Co-Head of Communications at Stonepeak.

“The platform is strategically positioned to be at the forefront of the continued shift from a traditional centralized infrastructure model to a cloud-based, connected and distributed digital infrastructure model and we are excited to partner with the American Tower team to help accelerate investment behind this trend in the years to come.”

As announced, the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions.