EQT Infrastructure V has signed an agreement to co-invest alongside EQT Infrastructure IV in EdgeConneX. Once the transaction is complete, each fund will have an equal ownership stake in the company.
EdgeConneX is a fast-growing data centre platform focusing on demand from the cloud-, content-, and network customer ecosystem and offers a combination of hyperscale and edge data centres.
EQT is a global investment organization with more than EUR 71 billion ($82.9 billion) in assets under management across 27 active funds. It has portfolio companies in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas with total sales of approximately EUR 29 billion ($40 billion) and more than 175,000 employees.
Following the EdgeConneX acquisition by EQT Infrastructure IV in 2020, additional growth and development opportunities have been identified, such as winning additional customer contracts, expanding the business’ footprint through a proactive build approach in key markets and pursuing accretive mergers and acquisitions, company officials said.
EQT Infrastructure V’s participation will help to capture these opportunities and secure support and execution of EdgeConneX’s plan that was developed over the last year. The closing of the transaction is expected in Q3 2021.
With the acquisition of a stake in EdgeConneX, EQT Infrastructure V is expected to be 55-60 per cent invested (including closed and/or signed investments, announced public offers, if applicable, and less any expected syndication), and EQT Infrastructure IV is expected to be 80-85 per cent invested.
In February this year, India’s Adani Enterprises set up a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) with EdgeConneX. The JV will develop and operate Data Centres throughout India, leveraging the two partners complementary expertise and capabilities.
Addressing Digital needs
The move is expected to address the rapidly growing need for high- quality and reliable IT infrastructure as companies increasingly adopt digital. EdgeConneX has also named its first managing director (MD) for the Asia Pacific region.
Singapore-based Kelvin Fong, who was recently MD for Capitaland will take over as EdgeConneX MD. Fong has more than two decades of experience with stints in data centre operator Global Switch (from 2013-17), having joined the company from Citi Group where Fong was the head of CFM for the APAC region from 2011-13.
