Australian asset management firm Macquarie Asset Management has taken a minority stake in ST Telemedia Global Data Centres’ (STT GDC) UK unit Virtus Data Centres.
The companies said this week that STT GDC has reached an agreement for Macquarie Asset Management, via Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 7, to acquire a 'significant minority stake' in Virtus. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Virtus’ portfolio comprises 11 facilities across four campuses in Greater London with a combined capacity of over 180MW. The company says it has another 100MW pipeline of projects under consideration across the UK and Europe. STT GDC picked up 49 percent of Virtus from Brockton Capital in June 2015 and made the company a wholly-owned subsidiary in 2017.
“While London’s data center market is expected to continue seeing increased absorption levels, driven by strong demand for hyperscalers, we believe Europe – including core markets such as Germany and France – will present sizeable growth opportunities over the next decade,” said Nathan Luckey, a senior Managing director at Macquarie Asset Management.
Macquarie said it intends to “further strengthen Virtus’ focus on sustainability” and its aim of zero carbon emissions by 2030 through backing further investment in its technology and enhancing the lifecycle management of its equipment.
Bruno Lopez, president and group chief executive officer at STT GDC, said: “We are pleased to have propelled Virtus’ growth journey over the past seven years which has seen their platform grow into the UK’s leading hyperscale data center provider today. With Macquarie’s partnership, we look forward to building on this strong momentum, accelerating Virtus’ growth strategy and expanding our services to customers across Europe.”
Virtus CEO Neil Cresswell added: “Our vision is to lead the data center industry in Europe by being different by design. We are excited to have an experienced data center investor in Macquarie join ST Telemedia to support not only our growth plans, but also our continued innovation and commitment to ensure our facilities are future-proofed with sustainability at their core.”
Macquarie Asset Management currently manages investments in AirTrunk. It has also invested in Aligned Data Centers and Netrality Data Centers in the US.
