Blue Owl to Pay $1B for Digital Infrastructure Fund Manager
Blue Owl Capital Inc. has agreed to acquire digital infrastructure fund manager IPI Partners, LLC from an affiliate of ICONIQ Capital and an affiliate of Iron Point Partners for approximately $1 billion.
The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024 or the first quarter of 2025, consists of 80% Blue Owl equity and about 20% cash. The acquisition is expected to be neutral to Blue Owl’s earnings in 2025 and modestly accretive in 2026.
The acquisition is expected to complement Blue Owl’s existing net lease strategy and expand its digital infrastructure strategy, OWL co-CEOs Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz said, which will continue to be led by Blue Owl co-president Marc Zahr. IPI managing partner, Matt A’Hearn will become head of Blue Owl’s digital infrastructure strategy and report to Zahr.
“There is a massive market opportunity to finance data centers, matched by an increasing investor appetite for additional strategies investing behind cloud and AI-driven secular tailwinds,” Ostrover and Lipschultz said.
The IPI platform has a portfolio of 82 data centers comprising over 2.2GWs of leased capacity across the US, EMEA and APAC. Tenants are primarily investment grade corporations.
Chicago-based IPI had approximately $10.5 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2024. It was founded in 2016 as a joint venture between ICONIQ and Iron Point to service the needs of hyperscale and enterprise datacenter users.
In July, Blue Owl announced the acquisition of New York-based alternative credit manager Atalaya Capital Management for $450 million, comprised of $350 million of Blue Owl equity and $100 million of cash.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Societe Generale, and TD Securities (USA) LLC are acting as co-financial advisors to Blue Owl. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is acting as legal advisor to Blue Owl.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is acting as legal advisor to IPI. Berkshire Global Advisors L.P. is serving as financial advisor to Iron Point.