Data Center Investment News — 19/08/2022
Paratus launches Namibian data center in Windhoek
African telco Paratus has launched a new data center in Namibia.
The company this month opened its newest data center, dubbed Armada, just outside Namibia’s capital city, Windhoek. It is the company’s first facility in the country.
“The launch of Armada signals the country’s readiness to participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), offering Namibian businesses the whole gamut of digitally resilient infrastructure and hosting services, complemented by complete connectivity freedom and the opportunity to compete at world-class levels,” the company said in an announcement.
Specifications of the purpose-built facility weren’t shared, but the company said it was the largest in the country and built to Tier III standards. On its website, Paratus said the campus is backed up by generators to deliver up to 2MVA and has on-site solar panels.
Ascenty opens second Chilean data center
Ascenty has opened its second data center in Santiago, Chile.
The Santiago 2 facility is located in the Quilicura district of the capital, covering an area of 21,000 sqm (226,000 sq ft), with 31MW of IT load and capacity for up to 3,550 racks.
The company completed construction work on the facility in July, with an investment of R$500 million in the site so so far; which is due to increase to R$ 770 million after further planned expansions to the structure.
Initially planned for 2021, the construction of Santiago 2 faced delays related to the pandemic along with supply chain issues, COO Marcos Siqueira recently told BNamericas. The facility went live with 20 percent of its capacity already leased, and the company expects that figure to increase to 40 percent by the end of the year.
Former CyrusOne president enlisted to Carlyle’s data centre business board
US data centre group Involta has selected Gary Wojtaszek to join its Board of Directors. He joins Involta President and CEO James (Jim) Buie as the most recent board member following the company’s acquisition by global private equity and investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG).
Both will serve under the leadership of Board Chairman Ed Vilandrie, an Operating Executive for The Carlyle Group, and Involta Founder and former CEO Bruce Lehrman, Board Vice Chairman.
Wojtaszek is well known in the data centre and technology industry having been a key figure in recently acquired CyrusOne where he served as president and CEO. His experience includes founding, growing and monetising private and public companies of scale.
He’s currently the founder and CEO of RecNation and is a board member at GDS Holdings, Quantum Loophole, Tech Partners and Talen Energy. Wojtaszek is also an advisor to The Carlyle Group.
World Bank’s IFC to invest $35m in Mexico data centre
The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed a new financing tranche of US$35 million (approximately R$168 million) to aid in the expansion of Brazilian data centre services provider support ODATA.
The contribution will be used to finance the construction and operation of another data centre in Querétaro, Mexico. The company opened its first data centre in the country in April this year.
Mexico has been gradually growing, attracting several IT companies to the country. According to research released by IDC Mexico (International Data Corporation), the Information Technology market will grow 7% this year, twice as much as expected for the Mexican national economy.
Prior to this transaction, IFC supported the company with US$60 million to consolidate its operations in Brazil.
SRTG private equity group rolls out $150m Southeast Asia data centre investment
PT Saratoga Investama Sedaya Tbk (SRTG) will invest Rp 1.4-2.2 trillion (~US$100-150 million) in the construction and acquisition of data centre real estate. The investment programme is to be rolled out under the group’s subsidiary AtriaDC during 2023-24.
The capital will be primarily deployed in Southeast Asian cities, with a big focus on the Indonesian capital of Jakarta where the operator’s footprint already includes a 30MW facility in the west part of the city.
AtriaDC President Director Angelo Syailendra, said: “Over the next two years, we will invest around US$100-150 million with funding sources from both shareholders and other sources of funds such as bank loan facilities.
“This acquisition [in West Jakarta] is our first step to strengthen AtriaDC’s position as a data centre provider in the city by considering the large end-user population in the surrounding area and the level of network density which is the main criterion of an edge data centre business.”
Menlo Equities seals $1bn acquisition fund
Private equity real estate investment firm Menlo Equities said it closed its latest investment fund, Menlo Realty Partners VI (MRP VI) on June 30, 2022.
The fund was oversubscribed with equity capital commitments of US$211 million, exceeding the initial fundraising target of US$175 million. The trancher secured commitments from a broad range of limited partners that included family offices, wealth management firms, Registered Investment Advisors, and high-net-worth individuals.
MRP VI is the largest value-add fund sponsored by Menlo Equities to date and has approximately US$1 billion of acquisition capacity when including co-investment capital and leverage. The fund will primarily target office, R&D, data centre, lab, and industrial properties.
The fund is a continuation of the investment approach Menlo Equities has employed since inception in 1994, focusing on commercial real estate located across markets in the United States.
Hyperscalers to lead $377bn CAPEX into data centres
Global data centre capital expenditure (CAPEX) is on track to reach US$377 billion by 2026, with the hyperscale cloud service providers accounting for more than half the market total.
According to the latest research data from Dell’Oro Group, the increasing adoption of accelerated computing will generate market growth opportunities.
Baron Fung, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group, said: “The data centre of the future will continue to evolve, with new accelerated computing architectures on the horizon enabling AI applications that are more automated, intelligent, and immersive for end-users.
“The hyperscale service providers will lead the market in investing in new accelerated computing technologies, with an emphasis on the cutting-edge server and network architectures, as well as enhanced thermal management solutions. However, there is much uncertainty in the near term for the overall market. Lingering supply chain challenges, persistent inflationary pressures, and declining economic growth could weigh down on enterprise data centre spending in the near term.
CDC Data Centres Opens 2 New Data Centers in Aucklan
CDC Data Centres has announced that its two new state-of-the-art hyperscale data centers are now open for business in Auckland.
Located in Silverdale and Hobsonville, they are the largest and most secure centers of their type in New Zealand and have been built specifically for national critical infrastructure providers and other organisations requiring the highest levels of security, 100% availability, rich connectivity and ensured data sovereignty, the company said in a LinkedIn post.
“Our unique fit-for-purpose design will enable our partners and customers to scale without limits and continue to move seamlessly and competitively to hybrid cloud operations. We’re very pleased with the strong interest from the sector, and already we’ve welcomed a wide range of partners to our centres including Vodafone New Zealand, Vector, Kordia and Feenix,” the LinkedIn post added.
CDC Data Centres also claims to be the first and only data center provider in New Zealand to be powered from 100% renewable and carboNZero Certified electricity from day one. In January this year, a Cushman & Wakefield study pointed out that Abu Dhabi, Hyderabad, Bangkok and Auckland were the markets to watch in 2022.
Edge Centres raises $5.7m for US rollout, plans three facilities in LA
Australian Edge data center firm Edge Centres has raised new funding for expansion into the US market.
“Edge Centres USA secures US$5.7 million (AU$8m) in seed funding round ahead of Q4 2022 launch in Los Angeles, kicking off US expansion,” the company said this week. It didn’t disclose the investors.
The capital will support Edge Centres’ rollout of its Edge facilities in the US, with the company’s entry into the US market predicted for Q4, 2022. The company said it was due to concurrently launch three new locations in Los Angeles, California, later this year.
“The USA represents a challenge and an opportunity unlike anything we’ve tackled before. It’s ambitious and exciting, and it’s going to be a lot of very hard work,” said CEO Jonathan Eaves.
StratCap acquires Expedient-occupied Milwaukee data center
Investment firm StratCap has acquired a data center leased to Expedient outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
StratCap’s data center real estate division, StratCap Data Centers, this week announced today that it completed the acquisition of a 28,500 square foot (2,650 sqm) data center that is fully leased on a triple-net basis located outside Milwaukee in Franklin. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We were able to diversify our portfolio in an off-market transaction with what we believe is an attractive asset acquired below appraised value, with a high-quality tenant, in a growing data center market,” said Bryan Marsh, CEO of StratCap Data Centers. “We think the relatively predictable rental revenue from the in-place, long-term lease and the continued geographic diversification of our assets will add value to our overall portfolio.”
Colt to expand Paris data center
The company said it is expanding its Colt Paris South West Data Centre by more than 50 percent.
“To support Paris’s rapidly growing technology community, Colt DCS is rapidly expanding its hyperscale data center presence in the city’s metropolitan area. Having previously offered 20MW of IT power across a gross site area of 5,000 sqm (53,800 sq ft), this site is currently being expanded further to support one of our global SaaS customer requirements with an additional 12.8MW,” the company said this week.
Construction is expected to be completed later this year; the newly expanded facility will offer 32.8MW across a gross site area of 23,400 sqm (251,875 sq ft).
Founded in 1992 and originally known as City Of London Telecom, Colt was previously listed on the London Stock Exchange and part of the FTSE 250 Index until it was acquired by Fidelity Investments in August 2015.