Digital Colony, a global investment firm dedicated to strategic opportunities in digital infrastructure, announced the completion of their purchase of Cogeco Peer 1, a leading provider of colocation, network connectivity and managed services, from Cogeco Communications Inc. (TSX: CCA) for $720 million to create a standalone business under a new brand.
Cogeco Peer 1’s portfolio includes over 3,300 route kilometers of owned, dense metro fibre in greater Toronto and Montreal, as well as several data centers across North America and Europe which serve a global blue-chip customer base. The new entity will include a fibre division which will be Canada’s first independent neutral-host provider of small cell and 5G infrastructure and enterprise and wholesale fibre connectivity, as well as a data centre division, which will concentrate on enabling multi-cloud services for enterprises while reinforcing its role as a leading hybrid-solutions managed service provider.
Miller Thomson LLP acted on behalf of the purchaser, Digital Colony, with a team led by Andrew Cohen (Corporate/M&A), Andrew Etcovitch (Corporate Tax), John Israel Galambos (Relationship Partner and Corporate Tax), and including Philippe St-Louis, Philipp Park, Lawrence Wilder, Louis-Philippe Borduas, Jean Bernard Ricard, Elissa Brock, Grégory Morin-Maltais, Julien Morier and Jamie Eichenbaum (Corporate/M&A), Keyvan Nassiry, Nora Osbaldeston, Ethan Campbell and Jean-Charles Panzini (Financial Services), Chantal Joubert, Alexandre Hébert, Ali Baniasadi, Danielle Parry, Nadia Guizani and Stuart Chaimberg (Real Estate & Leasing), Eric Dufour and Robyn Burns (Competition), Lisa Goodfellow, Daphnée Beauchamp, Greg Bush and Kim Ozubko (Labour & Employment), Ron Choudhury (Sales Tax), Anne-Frédérique Bourret and Claire Durocher (Environmental and Regulatory) and Lonnie-Brodkin Schneider, Alexandre Ajami and Karen Durell (Intellectual Property).
Cogeco Communications Inc., the seller, was led in-house by Christian Jolivet and supported by a team from Stikeman Elliott LLP led by Warren Katz and including Olivier Godbout, Barbara Sheng, Jordan Altman and Jules Dumas-Richard (M&A and Corporate), Neil Bindman, Stefan Fews, Andrew Elliott and Amelia Mounsey (Real Estate), Luc Bernier and Nathaniel Lacasse (Tax), Maxime Jacquin and Marie-Claude David (Banking), Jeff Brown, Susan Hutton, David Elder and Michael Rosenstock (Regulatory), Michel Legendre (Pension and Benefits), Justine Whitehead and Jonathan Auerbach (IP), Myriam Fortin (Environmental), Stephanie Weschler and Stephanie Pasternyk (Labor), Liliana Raffo (Paralegal) and Candace Cerone and Philippe St-Hilaire (Students).
The syndicate of lenders to Cogeco Communications Inc., represented by CIBC, was advised by McCarthy Tétrault LLP with a team led by Mathieu Dubord and including Marjolaine Hémond Hotte and Eve Tessier (Financial Services).