Key Points
KOLKATA/MUMBAI: Sovereign wealth funds, private equity funds and global infrastructure asset managers, including GIC of Singapore, ADIA, Stonepeak, DigitalBridge, KKR and Permira are among those tapped to acquire US buyout group Carlyles 24.04% stake in Bharti Airtels data centre arm, Nxtra Data Ltd (NDL), people aware of the matter said...
The Carlyle Group, among the worlds largest investment firms, is looking to sell the stake for Rs 7,000-7,500 crore, valuing Airtels data centre unit at Rs 24,000-29,000 crore ($3-3.5 billion, inclusive of debt), the people cited said.. Bharti Airtel owns 75.96% of Nxtra Data, a leading player in Indias data centre industry..
A combination of rising digitisation and internet penetration in India along with the rollout of pan-India 5G networks by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, the rising adoption of AI, the prominence of smart technologies, IoT-powered devices and big data is slated to further boost the data centre market...
Data centres (DCs) are a key piece of broadband communications infrastructure and telecom regulator, Trai, estimates Indias DC market to grow at an 11.4% compounded annual rate and scale the $5-billion mark by 2025 amid the countrys growing focus on digital delivery of services..
Prior to these four record-setting transactions, the biggest data center M&A deals were Digital Realtys $8.4 billion acquisition of Interxion, Digital Realtys $7.6 billion acquisition of DuPont Fabros, the Equinix acquisition of Telecity for $3.8 billion, the Equinix acquisition of Verizons data centers for $3.6 billion and the acquisition of Global Switch by the Jiangsu Shagang Group of China, which was eventually valued at over $8 billion in transactions that were spread over three years..
