The financing related to Databank's acquisition of zColo, the data center business of Zayo Group Holdings, was named 2020 Deal of the Year – North America Digital Infrastructure by Proximo Americas. Jones Day represented Databank, a leading provider of enterprise-class colocation, connectivity, and managed services, on the award winning $600 million financing package, which included a $450 million first lien term loan A facility, $50 million first lien revolving credit facility, and $100 million second-lien term loan facility.
"The Proximo Awards for 2020 do not purely recognise effort. And very few winners' main achievement was reaching financial close against a challenging background," according to Proxima Americas. "The background may have been challenging, but 2020 was a year when the project finance market kept on doing what it normally does - allocating, pricing, and managing risk - and still found new ways to finance energy and infrastructure assets."
Jones Day also advised DataBank on the underlying $1.4 billion acquisition of zColo, which created one of the largest privately held data center operators in the U.S. and positions DataBank as a leading provider of edge colocation and connectivity solutions to hyperscale, technology, and content, customers.
Sheel Patel (partner, Financial Markets, New York), with Jason Samblanet (associate, Financial Markets, Cleveland) and Brittany DePeder (associate, Financial Markets, Columbus), led the Jones Day finance team, which included lawyers from the Firm's New York, Chicago, London, and Paris offices. Ish Alsheik (partner, M&A, Chicago) and Alison Caverly (associate, M&A, Chicago) led the Jones Day M&A team.