John D. Franchini

Primary Focus & Experience

Mr. Franchini has extensive experience representing infrastructure, sovereign wealth, private equity, hedge and pension funds, together with their portfolio companies, in investment, acquisition, recapitalization, disposition and strategic joint venture transactions. Mr. Franchini has significant transactional experience involving core and non-core infrastructure assets; digital infrastructure assets (including data centers, fiber and tower assets); power generation (including conventional, renewables and other energy transition matters); midstream oil and gas assets; and transmission assets. Mr. Franchini also has significant experience with regulated and non-regulated utilities. 

Mr. Franchini also advises public and private companies in connection with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and other corporate transactions, including stock-for-stock mergers, tender offers, private stock and asset purchases, complex joint ventures, private placements of equity securities and restructurings. Mr. Franchini regularly represents clients in competitive auction scenarios, both as sellers and bidders.

Mr. Franchini has completed transactions throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America throughout his career. In 2025, he was named the Energy M&A Lawyer of the Year, North America by IJGlobal Investor.

Representative transactions include advising: 

• La Caisse, IFM, KKR, Koch Capital and Shell, the co-owners of the Colonial Pipeline, in its $9.1 billion sale to Brookfield and its institutional partners.
• Blackstone Credit & Insurance in the $7 billion consortium equity investment into a $14 billion joint venture to fund Sempra’s Port Arthur LNG Phase 2.
• Global Container Terminals, owned by OTPP, IFM and BCI, in the sale of its US terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey to CMA CGM.
• AustralianSuper in its $1.5 billion investment in DataBank, a leading provider of enterprise-class edge colocation, interconnection and managed services.
• Wren House in the consortium acquisition (together with AIP, MGX and GIP) of Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie and its co-invest partners, with an enterprise value of approximately $40 billion.
• Blackstone Credit & Insurance in its $3.5 billion investment into an $8.8 billion joint venture with EQT Corporation, holding several high-quality contracted midstream assets.
• Energy Capital Partners in its $2.2 billion acquisition and $1.4 billion financing of one coal-fired and three gas-fired power generation facilities from ArcLight and Blackstone.
• Apollo and Brookfield in their definitive agreement with Sumitomo Corporation and SMBC Aviation Capital to acquire Air Lease Corporation for an enterprise value of approximately $28.2 billion.
• IIF, J.P. Morgan’s infrastructure fund, in the business combination of its portfolio company, SouthWest Water Company, with Corix, a portfolio company of BCI. This transaction was named “Utilities Acquisition of the Year in North America” by IJInvestor.
• Actis in its $1.3 billion acquisition of Enel Generación Perú, a 2.2GW diversified generation platform and the largest clean energy platform in Peru, from Enel. This transaction was named “Utilities Acquisition of the Year in Latin America” by IJInvestor.
• Actis in its $1.6 billion acquisition from Sacyr of a portfolio of operating toll roads in Colombia.
• A global sovereign wealth fund in its $1.8 billion investment in Sempra Infrastructure Partners.
• iCON Infrastructure in its acquisition and subsequent sale of Mountaineer Gas, the largest gas distribution company in West Virginia.
• Ullico Infrastructure Fund in its acquisition of Hearthstone Utilities, the owner of six natural gas local distribution companies across five states; and in its subsequent $690 million acquisition of Hope Gas, a regulated gas distribution company located in West Virginia, from Dominion Energy.
• Onward Energy in its $1 billion acquisition of 100% of the cash equity interests in a portfolio of operating utility scale solar projects from Global Atlantic Financial Group and affiliates of KKR.
• Apollo, as consortium lead, in the $3 billion consortium acquisition of a 49.9% interest in Anheuser-Busch InBev’s US-Based Metal Container Plants; and in InBev’s subsequent buyback of the same stake.
• GIC in its joint acquisition with Abertis Infraestructuras, S.A. of an approximately 70% stake in Red de Carreteras de Occidente S.A.B. de C.V., the largest toll road concession in Mexico. This transaction was named “Private Equity Deal of the Year” by LatinFinance. 
• iCON Infrastructure and its portfolio company, TruVista Telecommunications, in the acquisition of Plant Telephone Company, a leading telecommunications solutions provider in Southern Georgia.
• A global sovereign wealth fund in its acquisition of an equity interest in Vantage North America, a builder, owner and operator of data centers throughout North America.

Recognition & Accomplishments

Mr. Franchini is recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers, the Legal 500 and IFLR for his energy and infrastructure-related work throughout the Americas. He regularly publishes articles and speaks at conferences on M&A and equity investing matters.

Mr. Franchini served as an editor of the Fordham Law Review and was the recipient of the MCI International Law Fellowship through which he conducted a study of privatization in the Czech Republic in conjunction with The World Bank. He is also a member of the American Bar Association.