DLA Piper advises Azrieli Group on acquisition of Norwegian data centre developer

Green Mountain is a private company incorporated in Norway in 2009, operating in the field of server farms. Its three main areas of operations are: (a) planning and construction of server farms with high-level information security; (b) provision of advanced service farm services to organisations and wholesale customers; and (c) highly-efficient operation of server farms, using 100% renewable energies. The company operates three server farms in Norway and, to date, has signed contracts for approx. 24 MW with customers for an average period of approx. 7.5 years. Green Mountain also has future construction and development potential at these and additional sites of approx. 520 MW.

Azrieli Group is Israel’s largest real estate group, which has built and operates Israel’s leading nationwide chain of income-producing properties, including shopping malls, offices and senior homes. The acquisition of Green Mountain is a key milestone in realising the Group’s strategy for building international operations in the Data Centre sector. The combination of its operations in North America and Green Mountain in Europe will allow it to become a significant global player in this growing and developing arena.

The DLA Piper team was led out of Oslo by Real Estate partner Magnus L Lutnaes and Corporate partner Kaare Oftedal.

Magnus L Lutnaes commented, “The Data Centre sector represents an exciting, high growth  opportunity for the global real estate sector and we are delighted to have advised the Azrieli Group on this significant investment into Europe. The Scandinavian market, and in particular Norway, is experiencing outstanding growth in the Data Centre market as it benefits from an exceptional availability of power, alongside power costs among the lowest in Europe. In addition, power in Norway is produced by 100% environmentally-friendly sources, which is particularly attractive to investors.”