Gleiss Lutz advised Northern Data AG as lead counsel on its acquisition of a data centre facility in Northern Sweden from the Canadian Hydro66 Group. The site consists of six data centre halls on an area of 2.5 hectares and will be further expanded by Northern Data following the acquisition.
The newly acquired data centre is located in the Northern Swedish city of Boden which, due to its location near the Arctic Circle, has an average annual temperature of 1.3 degrees Celsius, making it ideal for passive energy-saving cooling of the high-performance computing (HPC) hardware. The electricity for the new site is 100 percent sourced from renewable energy generated by hydropower plants in the region.
The listed company Northern Data AG develops and operates global infrastructure solutions in the field of HPC and provides the infrastructure for various HPC applications in areas such as bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data analytics, Internet of Things and rendering. Northern Data offers its HPC solutions both in large, stationary data centres and in mobile high-tech data centres that can be set up at any location worldwide. The company combines self-developed software and hardware with intelligent concepts for a sustainable energy supply.
The acquisition of the data centre will take place by way of a transfer of all the shares in an English holding company of the Hydro66 Group, together with its Swedish subsidiaries. The consideration is made up of a cash component and shares in Northern Data AG, which are to be issued from authorised capital by way of a capital increase against a non-cash contribution. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.
Gleiss Lutz already advised Northern Data in 2020 on a capital increase against cash contribution and on the company's annual general meeting, which was held virtually.
The Gleiss Lutz team advising Northern Data on the current transaction comprised the following lawyers: Dr. Andreas Löhdefink (lead, partner, M&A), Dr. Stephan Aubel (partner, Corporate and Capital Markets), Dr. Cornelia Topf (partner), Dr. Christoph Auchter, Kevin Löffler (all M&A), Dr. Christina Aye (counsel, Corporate), Dr. Stefan Mayer (partner), Dr. Leonhard Kornwachs (both Tax, all Frankfurt), Dr. Alexander Molle (partner), Dr. Felix Müller (both IP/IT, Berlin), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (partner) and Aylin Hoffs (both Public Law, Düsseldorf).
The following advised as local counsel: Gernandt & Danielsson Advokatbyrå KB, Stockholm (Pär Johansson (counsel) and Andreas Lexhag (associate)), Burges Salmon LLP, London (Richard Spink (partner) and Rebecca Brown (associate)) as well as WeirFoulds LLP, Toronto (Ryan Filson (partner)).
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