Norton Rose Fulbright advises on the financing for a new data center in Italy

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised ING Bank N.V. – Milan branch (ING) on a financing to Irideos S.p.A. (Irideos) for the development, construction and management of Avalon 3, a new Tier IV hyper-connected and sustainable data center in Milan. Avalon 3 will be part of the Avalon Campus, which is the largest interconnection hub in Italy.

The investment for the construction of Avalon 3 has been financed in part by a medium-long term loan provided by ING. The financing provides the progressive release of funds on the basis of the progress on the works related to the construction of the data center and is backed by a guarantee from SACE S.p.A, as part the latter’s New Green Deal.

Avalon 3 will be developed on a 3,500 square meter area, connected to the Avalon Campus, the largest interconnection hub of its kind in Italy. Construction is expected to be complete by July 2022.

Irideos is 78.3% owned by F2i, the largest Italian infrastructure fund, and 19.6% by Marguerite, an infrastructural fund created by six European public financial institutions and the European Commission, through Marguerite’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Irideos Data center Italia S.r.l..

The Norton Rose Fulbright team, which assisted ING on the negotiation, finalization and completion of the all of the financial documentation related to the financing, as well as all aspects of the legal due diligence of the project, was led by Arturo Sferruzza, partner and head of the firm’s Banking and Energy departments in Italy.

He was assisted by counsels Elisabetta Negrini and Ginevra Biadico, and by associate Federica Desiderato.