Slaughter and May is advising Equinix and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) on the pair's $4 billion acquisition of data centre provider atNorth, marking the firm’s first mandate for CPPIB. U.K. corporate partners James Cook and Hem Sumanasuriya are leading the Slaughter and May team on the deal, which involves a U.S.-listed buyer and a Canadian pension investor but is being conducted under U.K. law. The target, atNorth, has eight operational data centres and several sites under development across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It is Slaughter and May's first instruction from CPPIB, adding to the firm’s collection of sponsor-style and private capital mandates. However, Equinix is a long-standing client, which it has advised since 2010 across a range of international transactions. In October, Slaughter and May advised Equinix in October on a £3.9 billion data centre development site in South Mimms, U.K. Linklaters also advised CPPIB on the acquisition led by led by partners Michael Honan and Ben Suen . The firm also advised both CPPIB Investments and Equinix on the debt financing aspects of the transaction, led by partner Ross Schloeffel. Clifford Chance is advising the seller, Partners Group, led by London head of private capital Spencer Baylin and partners Angharad Lewis and Jennifer Storey. The firm advised the Swiss-based global private markets firm on its acquisition of atNorth in 2021, led by Baylin. According to Partners Group, contracted EBITDA increased 14-fold during its ownership period. Clifford Chance also advised Partners Group on a minority stake exit in Apex Logistic, the acquisition of Life Cycle Power from Arroyo in October 2025 and the acquisition of The Hoxton Hotel in Poblenou, Barcelona in December 2025. Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance were also on opposite sides of the table earlier this month when Nuveen’s acquisition of London-based Schroders was announced, with the firms acting in reverse roles to this deal: Clifford Chance advised the buyer while Slaughter and May acted for the seller. For Slaughter and May, these deals form part of a run of work worth more than £25bn over the past two months, including advising Zurich on its acquisition of Beazley, NatWest on its acquisition of Evelyn and Vodafone on its sale of Ziggo.