A consortium of US investment firm KKR and Singapore Telecommunications will invest S$ 1.75 billion ( US$ 1.3 billion ) in ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, one of Asia’s biggest data centre providers, the parties said on Tuesday ( Jun 18 ).
The KKR-SingTel partnership, which reportedly held the majority interest in ST Telemedia Global Data Centers (STT GDC ), for about US$ 1 billion, was announced by Reuters in late May.
As nations and businesses respond to the increase in artificial intelligence, there is growing curiosity and demand for data centers throughout Asia Pacific.
The companies stated that ST Telemedia, a Taiwanese strategic investment wholly owned by Temasek, would continue to be STT GDC’s majority shareholder, but did not disclose the size of the KKR-Singtel interest.
This strategic relationship with KKR and Singtel will be a major catalyst for STT GDC’s second chapter of development as a leader in the electronic equipment industry, according to Bruno Lopez, president and group CEO of STT GDC, in a affirmation. The industry is currently experiencing unprecedented sky and AI-led growth.
According to the joint statement from the three parties, the deal includes the consortium’s first S$ 1.75 billion investment via transferable preference shares with detachable warrants.
Upon training of the subpoenas in full, the partnership will spend an extra S$ 1.24 billion, the speech said.
According to the statement, the purchase proceeds will be used to strengthen STT GDC’s position in the markets in which it is active and to help its ongoing global expansion and growth plans using both organic and inorganic strategies.
Founded in 2014, Singapore- headquartered STT GDC has more than 95 data centres across 11 geographies, with its data center investment commanding a complete combined power of over 1.7 gigawatts of IT weight, according to the statement.
The investment comes from KKR’s Asia Pacific Infrastructure Investors II Fund. The company announced earlier this month that it planned to invest in infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific region at the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Prosperity.
The investment also adds to a previous partnership in which New York-based KKR purchased a 20 % stake in Nxera, SingTel’s regional data center business, for S$ 1.1 billion in September of last year.
According to the parties in the statement, the transaction’s closing must be accompanied by regulatory approvals.
According to a separate statement from the global law firm, Latham &, Watkins has given STT GDC advice on the deal.