TLH Advocates & Solicitors, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) and Anagram Partners have counselled on Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s (CPPIB) strategic partnership with CtrlS Datacenters, involving a commitment of up to CAD1 billion (USD704.3 million) towards India’s rapidly expanding digital infrastructure sector.
The transaction comprises two components: CPPIB’s CAD588 million investment to acquire an 8.2% stake in CtrlS Datacenters and an injection of CAD441 million into a joint venture with CtrlS to develop and operate hyperscale data centre campuses across India.
The partnership is expected to accelerate CtrlS’ hyperscale date centre expansion as demand for AI-ready and cloud infrastructure continues to grow across the country.
“We acted as legal advisers to CtrlS across all stages of the transaction, right from structuring and negotiation till signing and completion. We advised our client on both the equity investment in CtrlS and the joint venture between CPPIB and CtrlS for the development of hyperscale data centre campuses in India,” partner Prateek Batra told India Business Law Journal.
“It obviously was an extremely rewarding mandate to be involved in. We believe that India’s data centre sector is at an inflection point with the hyperscale expansion, domestic cloud adoption and AI-led demand converging. We do expect a significant uptick in activity in this space over the coming years.
“While the deal terms remain confidential, transactions of this nature are inherently complexity. Primary equity investment running in parallel with a development joint venture means the governance, economics, exit and regulatory aspects of the deal have to align and move in lockstep.
“The broader insight for the market is that data centres have firmly graduated from an emerging asset class to core infrastructure for long-term institutional investors in India and deal structures are maturing to reflect that reality.”
Batra co-led the transaction team acting for CtrlS Datacenters with Shailendra Komatreddy, founder and managing partner at TLH. Associates Anirudh Krishna and Vanshika Gupta assisted, while Mathew George counselled on competition matters.
Anagram Partners also advised CtrlS Datacenters, with partners Shuva Mandal and Ankit Mishra leading the team. Principal Jagdish Kaisare, senior associate Anoushka Shetty and associate Siddhant Sahu also assisted.
CAM advised CPPIB, with senior partner Reeba Chacko, and partners Saurav Samaddar and Suvojit Halder leading the team. Principal associates Srushti Shanbhag and Darshna Vyas; senior associates Jayant Belgaumkar and Satvik Khatri; and associates Stuti Agarwal, Utkrasht Gupta, Prajwal V and Jerrin Mathew provided support.
Competition law issues were handled by partner and head of competition Avaantika Kakkar and partner Dhruv Rajain. Principal associate Rajat Sharma, senior associate designate Vrinda Gundam, senior associate Vanya Agarwal, and associate Samridh Sinha provided assistance.
Hyderabad-headquartered CtrlS operates 19 data centres across nine key markets in India, with more than 370MW of operational capacity and around 4.4GW of projects at various stages of development. The company is focused on building next-generation AI-ready and hyperscale infrastructure while advancing renewable energy adoption and sustainable data centre operations.
CPPIB is a global investment management organisation headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York City, São Paulo and Sydney. It invests in public and private equities, as well as the infrastructure, real estate and fixed income sectors, and operates independently of government oversight.
