French private equity firm Ardian has acquired data center company Verne Global from Digital 9 Infrastructure.
In 2021, D9 bought Verne for £231 million ($320m at the time). Verne operates a 24MW data center campus on a former NATO site near Keflavik, Iceland, offering colocation and high-performance computing services.
D9 has since acquired and merged Finnish data center firm Ficolo and London’s Volta Data Centres into the Verne brand.
But D9 struggled financially this year as its debt grew and share price dropped dramatically. To boost its stock, it initially said that it would sell a minority stake in Verne, but shareholders pushed for a total sale.
The terms of the sale to Ardian have not been disclosed. Closing of the deal is subject to the receipt of merger control and foreign direct investment clearance which is expected by the end of Q1 2024.
“We are absolutely delighted to become part of the Ardian platform, which has a team with deep expertise in digital infrastructure that will help accelerate our ambitious expansion plans across the Nordics," Dominic Ward, CEO, Verne Global, said.
"Verne aims to deliver sustainable data center solutions that enable organizations to cost-effectively scale their digital infrastructure while reducing their environmental impact. We are hugely excited to be working with Ardian and believe that we have the perfect partner to help power our future."
Prior to the sale, Verne had a five-year pipeline to expand the capacity of its data center campus in Iceland from the current 40MW to over 96MW, which will require £390 million ($483.6m) in capital expenditure. The company secured a $100 million loan in June 2023 to fund its expansion plans.
