Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners joins continuing investor GI Partners, strengthening Flexential’s position to meet increasing demand for next-generation data center infrastructure solutions.

Charlotte, NC – October 21, 2024

Flexential, a leading provider of secure and flexible data center solutions, today announced a strategic investment from Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP). MSIP is partnering with GI Partners to accelerate Flexential's growth and to support its mission to meet increasing demand for digital infrastructure.

With a strong foundation of 40+ highly connected data centers across the United States, and over 325MW of built and under-development capacity, Flexential is poised for significant growth from enterprise digital transformation, cloud adoption, and the emerging needs of hyperscale and AI workloads. The investment from MSIP will help fuel Flexential’s ongoing growth strategy, enhancing its market presence and enabling continued investment in its national FlexAnywhere® platform.

“We are excited to partner with Flexential at this critical moment in the company’s evolution,” said Christopher Ortega, Head of Americas, MSIP. “We believe Flexential’s robust next-generation infrastructure, commitment to innovation, and proven leadership in the industry make it well-positioned to capitalize on market opportunities. We look forward to supporting the company's continued growth and success in the years to come.”

As a result of the transaction, MSIP will invest in the common equity of the company as a co-control investor alongside GI Partners. Together, they will provide a substantial amount of primary capital to fund continued expansion and growth.

“Flexential has proven its leadership in reliable delivery of critical data center services to the most sophisticated customers in the world,” said Travis Pearson, Managing Director and Co-Head of Private Equity, GI Partners. “The Flexential leadership team has paved the way for sustained growth, and we are thrilled to welcome Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners as a partner to help drive the company’s future success.”

Flexential’s CEO Chris Downie emphasized that the new investment will allow the company to double-down on active development to meet robust market demand.

“The new partnership with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, combined with the strong foundation laid with GI Partners, represents a tremendous opportunity for Flexential to further accelerate our growth trajectory and sets the stage for future strategic opportunities,” said Chris Downie, CEO of Flexential. “As we continue to invest in expanding our infrastructure and delivering innovative solutions to our customers, this additional investment will enable us to build on our recent successes and further strengthen our position as a leader in the data center and digital infrastructure industry.”

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024 upon completion of customary regulatory approvals.

Ropes & Gray LLP acted as legal counsel to Flexential and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to Flexential and GI Partners. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to MSIP, Citi acted as lead financial advisor to MSIP and Evercore also served as financial advisor to MSIP.

About Flexential

Flexential empowers the IT journey of the most complex businesses by offering customizable IT solutions designed for today’s demanding high-density computing requirements. With colocation, cloud, connectivity, data protection, and professional services, the FlexAnywhere® platform anchors our services in 42 data centers across 19 highly connected markets on a 100Gbps private network backbone. Flexential solutions are strategically engineered to meet the most stringent challenges in security, compliance, and resiliency. Experience the power of IT flexibility and how we enable digital transformation at www.flexential.com.

About Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP) is a leading global private infrastructure investment platform with approximately $16 billion in assets under management since inception. Founded in 2006, MSIP has invested in a diverse portfolio of more than 40 investments across transportation, digital infrastructure, energy transition and utilities. MSIP targets assets that provide essential public goods and services with the potential for value creation through active asset management. For further information about Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, please visit www.morganstanley.com/im/infrastructurepartners.

About GI Partners

Founded in 2001, GI Partners is a private investment firm with over 170 employees and offices in San Francisco, New York, Dallas, Chicago, Greenwich, Scottsdale, and London. The firm has raised more than $44 billion and invests on behalf of leading institutional investors around the world through its private equity, real estate, and data infrastructure strategies. The real estate team focuses primarily on technology and life sciences properties as well as other specialized types of real estate. The private equity team invests primarily in companies in the healthcare, services, and software sectors. The data infrastructure team invests primarily in hard asset infrastructure businesses underpinning the digital economy. For more information, please visit www.gipartners.com.