Kirkland Advises BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners on Strategic Venture with Meta to Develop Data Center in El Paso
Kirkland & Ellis advised BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK), Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners on a joint venture with Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) to develop and own a data center campus with 1 gigawatt of compute capacity in El Paso, Texas. Funds managed by BlackRock will own an 80% interest in the venture, while Meta will retain the remaining 20% ownership. The parties have committed to fund their respective pro rata share of the approximately $14 billion in total development costs for the buildings and long-lived power, cooling and connectivity infrastructure at the campus. At financial close, Meta will contribute the venture land and construction-in-progress assets valued at approximately $2.3 billion, and BlackRock will make a cash contribution of approximately $4.9 billion. Meta will receive a one-time distribution of approximately $1 billion to align ownership stakes in accordance with the 80/20 ownership split. A portion of BlackRock's investment will be funded with proceeds from a $12.5 billion debt financing. Meta will enter into lease agreements with the venture for use of the entire data center campus.
Read the transaction press release
The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Allan Kirk and Evan Chavez; debt finance lawyers Adam Griffin and John Papaspanos; capital markets lawyers Julian Seiguer, Ieuan List and Brooke Curry; real estate lawyer David Stanek; and tax lawyers Steve Butler, Jonathan Macke and Griffin Peeples.
