Incremental $500M Equity Committed to Capture Accelerated Growth
DENVER and NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2017 – (PRNewswire)
Cologix, a network neutral interconnection and data center company, and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners announced today the signing of a definitive merger agreement, through which Stonepeak will acquire a majority interest in the company. The transaction will provide Cologix increased access to capital for its growth plans and Stonepeak a marquee platform to enter the data center and interconnection market in North America. The existing management team will continue to run the business in their current capacities. Grant van Rooyen will remain the Chief Executive Officer of the Company and will be the Chairman of the Board. The existing Cologix investors, including Grant van Rooyen, the van Rooyen Group, Company management, Columbia Capital and Greenspring Associates will continue to hold a material interest in the company moving forward and will participate in future growth equity investments. Joining Grant on the board will be Trent Vichie, Brian McMullen, Bill Fathersand Peter Bruce from Stonepeak, Patrick Hendy from Columbia, and Neil Hobbs representing the van Rooyen Group interests.
Cologix operates 24 data centers across 9 strategic markets in the United States and Canada. Cologix’s leading carrier neutral facilities offer its customers access to the densest collection of networks and cloud operators across its markets through its Meet-Me-Rooms. Cologix’s 1,600+ customers include Network Providers, Cloud Providers, Media Companies, Financial Companies and Enterprises, all looking to leverage the power of interconnection to reach new customers and future proof IT deployments.
“I am delighted to welcome Stonepeak into Cologix as investors,” explains Grant van Rooyen. “Over the past months we have come to greatly appreciate the investment savvy, approach to partnership and tone of Stonepeak. They are the right partner for the existing Cologix management team to be working with for the next phase of our evolution. We have felt for some time that the opportunity within our markets and our sector broadly has far more potential than we have been able to practically finance. With this transaction and the incremental investment, we will now have the financial capacity we want and need.
“Enterprise-grade data center infrastructure, especially when combined with robust interconnection hubs, will be increasingly important to the digital supply chain in the coming years,” notes Trent Vichie, Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners. “Cologix has built an exceptional platform and team that is well positioned to accelerate growth by using the power of interconnection to support key industry trends, including content moving to the edge, the rise of cloud computing and enterprises outsourcing data centers. Stonepeak is delighted to partner with Grant and his team in this next phase of the company’s growth.”
“As the founding institutional investor in Cologix, our investment has proven to be not only rewarding from a returns perspective, but equally rewarding because we assisted in building a great Company from scratch over a 6 year period that has taken care of it’s customers and employees in a very responsible manner,” said Patrick Hendy, Partner from Columbia Capital. “We loved this opportunity and this market 6+ years ago and we continue to be big believers.”
The transaction, which is only subject to customary regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the coming months.
About Cologix Inc.
Cologix provides reliable, secure, scalable data center and interconnection solutions from 24 prime interconnection locations across 9 strategic North American edge markets. Over 1,600 leading network, managed services, cloud, media, content, financial services and enterprise customers trust Cologix to support their business critical infrastructure and connect them to customers, vendors and partners. Our dedicated, experienced local teams and scalable solutions enable us to provide industry-leading customer service and the ability to successfully support customers at the Internet’s new edge. For a tour of one of our data centers in Columbus, Dallas, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Minneapolis, Montreal, New Jersey, Toronto or Vancouver visit www.cologix.com or email sales@cologix.com. Follow Cologix on LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners
Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners is a North America focused private equity firm with a conservative yet opportunistic approach to infrastructure investing. Stonepeak invests in businesses comprised of hard assets with leading market positions primarily in the following sectors: Energy, Power & Renewables, Transportation, Utilities, Water & Communications. Stonepeak, founded in 2011 and headquartered in New York, manages $6.4 billion of capital for its investors.
