Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and Pacific Asset Management Company (Pacific) have announced a KRW 200 billion (C$214.3 million) joint venture to develop the largest carrier-neutral hyperscale data centre, Jukjeon Data Centre, in South Korea.
CPP Investments and a fund managed by Pacific will commit KRW 137 billion (C$146.8 million) in equity for the project development, with CPP Investments allocating KRW 126 billion (C$135 million). Other investors in the joint venture include Dreammark 1, GS Retail, and Shinhan Investment Corporation.
Located in the eastern part of the Seoul metropolitan area, Jukjeon Data Centre is close to the Pangyo Techno Valley, a technology hub known as South Korea’s Silicon Valley. The data centre also provides connectivity to multiple telecom carriers.
Gilles Chow, Managing Director, Head of Real Estate North Asia, CPP Investments said:
Demand for data centres in Asia Pacific continues to grow and is boosted further by the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies in South Korea are in need of digital infrastructure as the country is emerging as a technology and innovation hub in the region. This joint venture combines the strength of each partner to provide a best-in-class data centre for tenants, and represents a significant investment opportunity for CPP Investments as we continue to expand our real estate portfolio in the region.
Connectivity options
Jukjeon Data Centre with a total gross floor area of 99,070 square meters will consist of four above-ground floors and four below-ground floors to provide commercial space for cloud service, internet service and information technology companies. Upon completion in June 2024, Jukjeon Data Centre will be operated by LG CNS, an experienced data centre operator in South Korea.
The data centre, which will be built in Jukjeon some 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Seoul, is a project promoted by Pacific Asset Management, a real estate asset management company based in South Korea, which has attracted 828 billion won ($680 million) from investors including Shinhan Investment and Canada’s investment management organization, CPP Investments. Hyundai E&C, a major builder affiliated with South Korea’s Hyundai auto group, said LG CNS, a data centre operator affiliated with South Korea’s LG Group, is in charge of infrastructure construction and operation.
“Based on our technology and know-how, we will establish a leading position in data centre construction,” an unnamed Hyundai E&C official said in a statement on March 21. The builder said that the data centre can deploy about 1,000 racks per data hole with a design that adjusts the distance between columns to respond quickly to the rapid expansion of equipment and provide a high-performance computing environment of more than 10 kilowatts per rack.
