Clifford Chance advised funds and accounts managed by Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO), as majority investors in a US$27.3 billion private securities offering by funds managed by Blue Owl Capital to raise capital that will be invested into a joint venture with Meta Platforms, Inc. (Meta) to finance the development and operations of the 2,700 acre Hyperion Data Center in Richland Parish, Louisiana.
Funds managed by Blue Owl Capital will own an 80% interest in the joint venture, and Meta will retain the remaining 20% ownership. The parties have committed to fund their respective pro rata share of the total development costs for the buildings and long-lived power, cooling, and connectivity infrastructure at the campus.
"We are extremely proud to help our client PIMCO and position our cross-practice team of lawyers to contribute to the execution of this landmark transaction," said partner Gianluca Bacchiocchi.
Partner Zarrar Sehgal added, "This transaction represents a significant milestone not only for our client but also for the broader data center financing market and we leveraged the strength of our multi-practice approach – seamlessly combining depth across capital markets, finance, real estate, tax and regulatory teams to deliver strategic value on this groundbreaking deal."
Bacchiocchi and Sehgal along with associates Brianna Jones Rich and Jarek Peterson led the multi-practice team, which included Capital Markets partner Gary Brooks, associate Jed Tifft and law clerk Jake Hewitt; Asset Finance associate Asena May; Structured Finance partner Lee Askenazi and counsel Peter Manno; Banking partner Thomas Critchley; Real Estate partner Jon Newman, associate Michael Attias, and staff attorney Joey Salama; Regulatory partners Ty'Meka Reeves-Sobers and Marcia Hook, associates Kami McFarland and Adriana Vélez-León; Tax partner Jim Gowar; partner Megan Gordon, counsel Catherine Ennis and Jacqueline Landells on compliance matters; and partner Paul Koppel with associates Ivona Dimov and Emma Himes on ERISA matters.