Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure private equity firm, announced the $3.0bn equity recapitalization of its portfolio company Cologix, a retail colocation provider focused on the enterprise data center segment.
Cologix is being sold by Stonepeak’s older fund vintage, Stonepeak Infrastructure Fund II, and co-investors (including Mubadala), to new Stonepeak-managed vehicles comprising both existing and new third-party investors. For example, Madison International Realty, a commercial real estate fund manager, is investing in the recapitalization of Cologix.
Notably, this Stonepeak-led equity recapitalization closely follows Cologix streamlining its debt structure by issuing $1.1bn in securitized notes, through a previously announced data center securitization.
Finally, the equity recapitalization transaction is expected to close in Q1 2022.
Cologix – Overview
Cologix operates or has under development 40 data centers located in 11 markets of the United States and Canada:
- United States: Ashburn (1), Columbus (4), Dallas (3), Jacksonville (2), Lakeland (1), Minneapolis (4), New Jersey (4), Silicon Valley / Santa Clara (1)
- Canada: Montreal (11), Toronto (4), Vancouver (4)
Across this portfolio, Cologix offers access to 600+ networks, 300+ cloud providers, and 29 public cloud on-ramps at its facilities.
Customers
Cologix’s data center portfolio is currently occupied by 1.6k+ customers. For example, these customers include cloud service providers, carriers, financial services institutions, and large enterprises.
Stonepeak Infrastructure Fund II – Prior Capitalization of Cologix
Stonepeak Infrastructure’s $3.5bn Fund II acquired a majority stake in Cologix, in March of 2017, following an auction process. Subsequently, in January 2020, Mubadala Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, co-invested $500m of equity into the company.
Overall, Stonepeak Infrastructure Fund II has committed $631m of equity to Cologix, while the total equity commitment, which incorporates all co-investors, amounts to $1.2bn of equity. This equity capital has been funding the company’s footprint expansion through both organic and inorganic initiatives, including:
- Organic: building-out a new 40-megawatt hyperscale edge facility, called COL4, in Columbus, Ohio
- Inorganic: Cologix acquired vXchnge’s 8.5-megawatt Santa Clara, California data center campus
Additionally, in June 2021, Cologix made a combination of inorganic and organic expansions in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada.
Transaction Advisors – Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, Fund II
Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners’ financial advisor was Goldman Sachs. Additionally, Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners’ legal advisor was Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Stonepeak Infrastructure Fund II’s financial advisor was RBC Capital Markets, who will run a market check process.
