Gilbert + Tobin has advised Firmus, an innovative Australian data centre developer and operator, on its successful debt and equity financings to fund the construction of infrastructure required for its market leading, immersion cooling based, carbon reducing, cloud data centre technology at its flagship site in Launceston, Tasmania.
A leading Australian investment fund provided the unique facility arrangements under the transaction. The facility was arranged alongside a successful pre-IPO raise to fund up to 40MW of Firmus cloud data centre capacity.
Firmus’ data centres are some of the most cost effective, efficient, and sustainable in the world. Capable of hosting today’s most demanding AI and HPC servers, their infrastructure is built to be flexible. Firmus is building and hosting Supercloud, a GPU focused computational cloud for AI and ML applications, providing powerful, sustainable and affordable IaaS access to researchers and commercial users. Capacity is also used by Synert, another Firmus product, which uses large amounts of computing power through modified BTC computers to provide energy grid stabilising services to AEMO, critical as Australia’s energy grid transitions towards more renewable generation.
The complex transaction was run alongside a successful A$39.25 million pre-IPO raise with strong support from institutional investors.
The transaction was led by Banking + Projects partner Robert Trowbridge and Corporate Advisory partner Kevin Ko, with support from lawyer James Frixou on the financing and lawyer Wes Bainbridge on the equity raise. Lawyers Hannah Bragge, Jessica Liang and Arda Reznikas, consultant Suné Crafford and graduate Rocky Lagudi also assisted.
Partners Hanh Chau and Julian Cheng coordinated the tax structuring aspects of the transaction, with support from lawyers Alina Sedmak and Matthew Charman.
Banking + Projects Partner Robert Trowbridge said “We are proud to have been involved in this milestone and transformative transaction for Firmus and its financier, which involved complex structuring on an extremely tight timetable. We were able to assist Firmus in delivering a unique financing package which will allow Firmus to significantly ramp up its data centre capabilities and unlock future development opportunities.”
Corporate Advisory Partner Kevin Ko said “Firmus’ cloud computing and energy stabilisation services are helping to build the financial infrastructure of tomorrow whilst supporting the transition to renewable energy. It’s been enormously satisfying for us to work with Firmus on this unique transaction.”
Gilbert + Tobin’s Banking + Projects team is ranked top tier in Chambers Asia Pacific for Acquisition Finance and Corporate Finance and Legal 500 for Banking & Finance. Our experience in the data sector is unrivalled, having worked on numerous financings for lenders to AirTrunk (including financing data centres in Australia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong as well as financing its recent acquisition by MIRA) and Canberra Data Centres including its recent syndicated refinancing.
Gilbert + Tobin’s Corporate Advisory team, which includes leading capital markets lawyers, has advised the issuers on many of the largest equity raisings, IPOs and ASX listings in 2021, including SiteMinder, APM, Vulcan Steel, Rubicon Water, Pepper Money, Peter Warren Automotive Group and Australian Clinical Labs. Gilbert + Tobin is ranked Band 1 in ECM by Chambers Asia Pacific, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific and IFLR1000 and has advised on more ECM matters than any other firm in the last six years.