Baker McKenzie has advised ESR Group Limited ("ESR") on the successful closing of its ESR Data Centre Fund I. The Firm also acted as lead counsel for the fund in all of its downstream data center investments across Asia. This included its most recent joint venture with CloudHQ to develop ESR Cosmosquare, a USD 2 billion, 130-megawatt hyperscale data center campus located in Nanko Kita, Osaka, Japan.
ESR Cosmosquare is ESR's flagship data center project. It comprises three buildings: OS1, OS2 and OS3. ESR completed the core and shell of OS1 in August 2024.
Led by Principal Derek Kwan, based in Singapore, the Baker McKenzie team included the following:
- Funds: Jens Carle (local principal, Singapore), Gabriel Fang (associate, Singapore), Wei Sheng Lau (senior associate, Singapore), Bruce Qiu (associate, Singapore) and Aaron Cheuk (associate, Singapore)
- Financial regulatory: Eunice Tan (principal, Singapore)
- Corporate and real estate: Geraldine Ong (principal, Singapore), Xiao Hui Ting (associate principal, Singapore), Sharon Foo (local principal, Singapore), and Yutaka Kimura (partner, Tokyo)
Commenting on our work with ESR, Derek said: “We couldn't be more pleased to have assisted our long-standing client, ESR, in closing its inaugural data center fund and supporting our client with all their investments. Having also advised ESR on the formation of the fund, these transactions showcase our strengths in offering an end-to-end service across all aspects of private funds work, as well as our expertise in real assets, particularly in new economy asset classes such as data centers. We look forward to continuing to support ESR as it makes further investments in data centers to meet the growing demand for high-performing digital infrastructure.”