Status:  Clearance

Acquirer:  EQT Infrastructure IV fund (Sweden); Digital Colony Partners (US)

Acquired:  Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (US)

Value:  US$14.3 billion

Industry:  Telecommunications; Infrastructure

On May 8, 2019, Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., a US based global communications infrastructure services company, “announced that it has signed a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Digital Colony Partners (‘Digital Colony’) and the EQT Infrastructure IV fund (‘EQT’ or ‘EQT Infrastructure’) . . . in a transaction valued at $14.3 billion, including the assumption of $5.9 billion of Zayo’s net debt obligations.” (Press Release, Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., Form 8-K, Ex-99.1, May 8, 2019, SEC Filing; See also Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., Form 8-K, May 9, 2019, SEC Filing.)  The receipt of CFIUS approval is a condition to closing the transaction.  (See Agreement and Plan of Merger, Section 5.1(b)(ii), Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., Form 8-K, Ex-2.1, May 9, 2019, SEC Filing.)  “Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., . . . is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Boulder, Colorado that provides bandwidth infrastructure in the United States, Canada and Europe.”  (Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., Schedule 14A, June 26, 2019, SEC Filing.)  “Key products include dark fiber, fiber to cellular towers and small cell sites, dedicated Wavelength connections, Ethernet, IP connectivity, data center solutions/offerings, cloud offerings and other high-bandwidth offerings.” (Id.)  In a report for the quarter ending December 31, 2019, filed by Zayo Group Holdings on February 4, 2020, the company reported that CFIUS approval was received. (See Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., Form 10-Q, Feb. 4, 2020, SEC Filing (“The closing of the deal continues to be subject to customary conditions, including regulatory approvals relating to review and clearance by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (which have been obtained).”)

We have previously reported on two other CFIUS filings involving EQT – see here and here.