Alumni News

Data centres have become foundational infrastructure for the global economy. The sector is attracting investment at a scale and pace without modern precedent. Accelerating digitalisation, the computational demands of AI, and the strategic priority that governments now attach to sovereign compute capacity have together transformed data centres into pillars of national industrial strategy. Yet the regulatory and infrastructure frameworks that govern their development have not kept pace with that demand. A defining feature of the sector is a collision between the political and economic imperative to build at speed on the one hand, and the physical and regulatory constraints on the other. Congested electricity grids, lengthening grid connection queues, inflexible planning regimes, tightening environmental obligations, and an increasingly assertive foreign investment-screening apparatus are factors that ultimately determine whether, where, when, and on what terms a project can in fact proceed.

On 26 March 2026, the European Parliament approved a substantial legislative amendment to update and strengthen the recovery and resolution rules for the banking sector that the EU put in place after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008. The rules govern how banks in the EU are to be managed when they fail or are at risk of failing. They set out how losses are to be allocated and depositors protected, and enable resolution authorities to intervene in an orderly way. The new Crisis Management and Deposit Insurance (CMDI) package revises those rules to address structural weaknesses that have become apparent over the past decade of implementation, including the unavailability of the resolution framework for smaller and medium-sized banks.

On 9 June 2026, a bill implementing the EU directive on multiple-vote share structures (MVS Directive) was submitted to the Dutch lower house. The directive allows companies seeking admission to trading on a multilateral trading facility (MTF), to introduce share structures where certain classes of shares provide more votes per share than other classes (high-vote/low-vote share structures). Importantly, the bill leaves untouched existing Dutch mechanisms for differentiating voting rights – including high-vote/low-vote structures and loyalty voting schemes. The implementing bill that has now been submitted is mainly of interest to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and does not affect companies listed on a regulated market.

De Brauw advised TenneT Netherlands B.V. on a decision by the Dutch central bank allowing credit institutions to treat exposures to TenneT as exposures to the Dutch central government. TenneT is the first Dutch company to obtain this status and to be included on the European Banking Authority's list.

Adyen N.V. has agreed to buy 100% of the shares in Talon.One, a leading customer engagement platform headquartered in Berlin and serving 300+ global merchants. The EUR 750 million purchase price will be paid in cash, with a significant part of the Talon.One founders' proceeds being reinvested in newly issued Adyen shares.

De Brauw advised HMH – a leading provider of equipment solutions in oil and gas drilling - on its IPO and on the Dutch law governed corporate reorganisation steps. HMH is a 50/50 joint venture between Baker Hughes and Akastor. With the completion of the IPO, HMH joins its two indirect parent companies on the public markets as a stand-alone listed entity.