Acquisition of Brazil's Odata opens the door to LatAm for Aligned Data Centers

Texas-based Aligned Data Centers is set to become the newest player in Latin America’s datacenter market following its acquisition of Brazil’s Odata from Pátria Investimentos.

The value and specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although it was previously reported that Pátria had put a price tag of more than 10bn reais (US$1.90bn) on Odata. The transaction is pending regulatory approvals and is expected to close in early 2023. 

In a statement, Pátria said that the divestment of Odata, as well as that of São Paulo toll road operator Entrevias, are expected to generate US$1.4bn in proceeds for investors in Pátria's Infrastructure Fund III.

Infrastructure Fund III is a US$1.7bn fund set up in 2013 which has invested in 10 portfolio companies. Its divestment phase has been underway, with the sale of Argo, a power transmission company, in 2020, and three other portfolio companies. 

The remaining portfolio of five active investments is performing well and is also positioned for divestment over the next few years, Patria said.

Aligned is owned by funds managed by Australia-based Macquarie Asset Management. Odata, for its part, is 90% controlled by Pátria, with a 10% stake belonging to US datacenter real estate investment trust CyrusOne.

Last March, funds KKR and GIP closed the acquisition of CyrusOne for US$15bn.

MACQUARIE

As of September 30, Macquarie Asset Management’s Real Assets division was managing over US$90bn of equity across its infrastructure, renewables and natural assets platforms.

In Latin America, Macquarie co-owns Mexican tower firm Mexico Telecom Partners (MTP) with US telecom infra fund DigitalBridge.

In Mexico, in addition to MTP, the Macquarie group also owns Generadora Eléctrica San Rafael, a hydropower generator; Decarred, a road concessionaire in Durango state; and Parque Solar Coahuila, a 22.5MW solar park.

Macquarie recently invested jointly with Brazilian investment fund IG4 Capital Investimentos to acquire control of Elevações Portuárias, which operates grain terminals T16 and T19 at Santos port in Brazil's São Paulo state.

Last year, the two firms tried to acquire construction group Andrade Gutierrez's 14% stake in CCR, one of Brazil's largest infrastructure groups, but the deal eventually broke down.

Macquarie has offices in São Paulo, Mexico City and Santiago, Chile.

SDC

In connection with the acquisition of Odata, Aligned entered into a definitive agreement to receive a “structured minority investment” in Odata from funds managed by SDC Capital Partners, Pátria said in a separate statement. 

SDC is a digital infra firm focused on developing, owning and operating hyperscale datacenters globally, including in Latin America.

In fact, NY-based SDC states that its investments include Brazil’s Ascenty, currently the largest datacenter collocation company in Latin America, whose leading controllers are Digital Realty and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners.

DIVESTMENTS

In addition to Odata, Pátria divested from Brazilian telecom infra firm Highline in 2019, selling it to DigitalBridge. It also sold operator Vogel Telecom to Algar Telecom in May 2021.

Pátria founded Odata in 2015. 

At present, the company has three datacenters in Brazil, one in Colombia, one in Chile and one in Mexico. 

In August, Odata secured US$35mn in a financing tranche from the World Bank's financing arm IFC to finance the construction and operation of another datacenter in Mexico, and in 2020 Odata secured US$60mn from IFC to consolidate its operations in Brazil.

In addition to Mexico, the company is also building new datacenters in Chile and Brazil.

Pátria said that the transaction will give Aligned Data Center a footprint spanning approximately 2GW across 30 sites “at full buildout”. 

“The Odata team and I are very excited to be joining Aligned Data Centers,” Odata CEO Ricardo Alário said in a statement.

The transaction is being funded by Aligned with equity investment from funds managed by SDC. 

SMBC, MUFG (co-structuring coordinators), Deutsche Bank and Nomura were "joint lead arrangers" for the debt financing of the transaction, Pátria said.

Guggenheim Securities and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC were financial co-advisors to Aligned, and Vinson & Elkins LLP acted as legal counsel.  

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP were legal advisors to SDC Capital Partners and Paul Hastings LLP was legal advisor to the joint lead arrangers.  

Meanwhile, Evercore and DH Capital, a division of Citizens were financial advisors to Pátria and Odata, as previously disclosed by BNamericas. 

Proskauer Rose LLP and Pinheiro Neto Advogados were Pátria’s and Odata’s legal counsels.