Celyn Evans

Partner Transactional

Kirkland & Ellis International LLP

celyn.evans@kirkland.com

London T +44 20 7469 2055

M +44 78 7240 3632

Practices

Overview

Celyn Evans is a corporate partner in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP. Celyn’s practice focuses on public and private mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters for financial sponsor clients in a variety of sectors, with a particular emphasis on infrastructure and real estate.

Celyn is recognised by The Legal 500 UK as a Recommended Lawyer for Corporate and Commercial, Private Equity Transactions: High-Value Deals, 2024.

Experience

GIC:

alongside CPPIB and Equinix to co-invest in a $15 billion digital infrastructure platform
on its joint venture with Blackstone relating to Hotel Investment Partners (HIP), a leading owner of 72 resort hotels in Southern Europe totalling 21,000 keys
on its partnership with BlackRock Alternatives Real Estate, British Airways’ New Airways Pensions Scheme and REEF Group for the development of Tribeca, Kings Cross, London, a life sciences quarter
on its establishment of a €400 million joint venture platform with Melcombe Partners, a UK-based asset manager and adviser
on the acquisition of an Enterprise Value logistics portfolio located in northeast England
on the £694 million acquisition of a 75% stake in the majority of Paddington Central assets from British Land
on its $525 million joint venture with Equinix to develop and operate two xScale™ data centres in South Korea
on its $3.9 billion additional joint ventures with Equinix to expand the xScale™ data centre programme
on its joint venture with Kennedy Wilson to acquire and manage urban logistics properties in the UK, Ireland and Spain, targeting total assets of $1 billion
on its joint venture with Melcombe Partners to acquire and develop urban logistics properties in Europe
on the over $1 billion co-investment with Equinix to develop and operate xScale™ data centres in Japan
on the €950 million buyout acquisition of a pan-European logistics platform from Apollo
on its €2.4 billion acquisition of P3 Logistic Park
on the $1 billion acquisition of Equinix Inc’s pan European hyperscale data centre business
as part of the c. €4.4 billion consortium acquiring a 55% a stake in the real estate assets of French multinational hotel group AccorHotels
on the sale of its stake in Spanish real estate company Axiare Patrimonio as a pre-cursor to the €1.46 billion takeover bid for Axiare by Inmobilaria Colonial

Digital 9 infrastructure plc on the sale to Ardian of 100% of Verne Global, a leading data center platform diversified across the UK and Nordics Verne Global’s Northern European data center platform includes five data center campuses in London, Iceland and Finland. It provides highly specialised data center services for organisations running high-performance computing (HPC) workloads, notably AI, machine learning and Large Language Models

Sani/Ikos Group on its recapitalization and strategic partnership agreement with GIC

Macquarie Asset Management on the strategic real estate partnership with NTT’s wholesale facilities across Europe and North America

EQT Infrastructure:

on the carve-out of Covanta’s European operations to create a standalone Waste-to-Energy platform
on the acquisition of Green Investment Group’s stake in Covanta
on the $5.3 billion acquisition on Covanta Holding Corporation

Hudson Pacific Properties, alongside Blackstone, on the plan to create a major new centre for film, TV and digital production in the UK

A sovereign wealth fund on the acquisition of a pan-European logistics portfolio for over €3 billion from EQT Exeter

Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division on its acquisition of B&B Hotels

Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, one of the largest global hospitality companies, on its agreement to sell its European vacation rental business to Platinum Equity for approximately US$1.3 billion

Al Rayyan Tourism Investment Company on the acquisition of Sheraton Istanbul City Center Hotel

Marguerite Adviser S.A. on the sale by The Marguerite Fund of a portfolio of five European infrastructure assets to Pantheon

Rhône Capital on the acquisition of a 45% interest in Maxam

Brookfield:

on its c. £3 billion consortium bid for Intu plc
on its successful (non-recommended) takeover of Songbird Estates PLC and Canary Wharf Group in consortium with Qatar Investment Authority*

PSP Investments on the termination of the Isolux Infrastructure / ROADIS joint venture with Isolux Corsan*

AIMCo, Allianz, EDF Invest and Hastings on their acquisition of Porterbrook Rail*

Qatar Holdings on its investment in a consortium acquiring 50 percent of Amex’s Global Business Travel Division*

Investec plc on the sale of a stake in Investec Asset Management to a team of senior fund managers*

Rothesay Life on the acquisition of pension buyout house Paternoster*

Serco Group plc on the disposal of its nuclear technical consulting business to Amec plc*

RIT Capital Partners plc:

on its joint venture with the Edmond de Rothschild Group where RIT acquired a stake in the Capital Holdings Funds*
on its investment in Corsair Capital, a private equity firm focused on financial services*

SABMiller plc on its takeover by Anheuser-Busch InBev*

AREA Property Partners and Delancey on their acquisition of Minerva plc*

*Matters prior to joining Kirkland

Linklaters LLP, London

Managing Associate, Linklaters London, 2014–2016
Managing Associate, Linklaters New York, 2013–2014
Associate, 2009–2013
Trainee Solicitor, 2007–2009

Credentials

Admissions & Qualifications

Admitted to practice as a Solicitor of England and Wales

Education

BPP Law School, LondonLPC2006
BPP Law School, LondonGDL2005
University of CambridgeB.A., History1st Class2004

Practices

Representative Matters

Prior Experience

Credentials

Admissions & Qualifications

Education