Blackstone (NYSE: BX), affiliates of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc., and Blackstone Property Partners have completed their acquisition of QTS Realty Trust (NYSE: QTS) for approximately $10 billion, including debt. QTS’ common stock, Series A preferred stock and Series B preferred stock will no longer be listed on any public market.
Greg Blank and Tyler Henritze, senior managing directors at Blackstone, said, “We are thrilled to complete this transaction and are excited about the future of QTS. QTS aligns with one of Blackstone’s highest conviction themes – data proliferation – and the required investment makes it well suited as a long-term holding for our perpetual capital vehicles. We look forward to working with QTS and its world-class management team to further scale the business to meet the rising demand for data centers.”
“Completing this transaction with Blackstone marks an exciting new chapter for QTS,” said Chad Williams, CEO of QTS. “‘Our Powered by People’ approach will continue to be the foundation for how we serve our customers, local communities and each other, enabling QTS to continue setting a new standard for innovation and service delivery in the data center industry.”
Jefferies LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisors to QTS, and Hogan Lovells US LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as legal counsel to QTS. Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Barclays, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisors to Blackstone, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as its legal counsel.