US-based Vantage Data Centers, backed by private equity firm Digital Bridge Holdings, has added a sixth European facility through the acquisition of Welsh company Next Generation Data (NGD). The sellers are private equity firm InfraVia Capital Partners and two NGD founders. Financial terms were not disclosed.
This is M&A deal number 174 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2020. The pace of deals has slowed a bit since the coronavirus pandemic emerged, but overall M&A activity remains reasonable steady. See the complete M&A deal list here.
The NGD campus, located in the Cardiff Capital Region, provides approximately 72MW of available power and has an expansion capacity of around 108MW, the company says. According to the company’s website, NGD is the biggest data center in Europe and uses 100 percent renewable energy. The “highly secure” site meets the UK government’s security standards, according to NGD’s site.
NGD CEO Justin Jenkins will join Vantage as president of its UK operations once the acquisition closes.
NGD Acquisition: Executive Perspectives
Sureel Choksi, president and CEO, Vantage Data Centers, commented:
“As the needs of our hyperscale, cloud and large enterprise customers continue to grow, Wales represents a highly attractive U.K. market offering both lower cost and greater scalability versus London. NGD customers benefit from very low network latency to London, low power costs and excellent fiber connectivity, coupled with the company’s massively scalable campus outside London’s highly constrained M25 area. We are thrilled to welcome Justin Jenkins and the entire NGD team to Vantage Europe.”
Jenkins added:
“The NGD team is excited to join Vantage Europe given our shared commitment to operational excellence, high-quality facilities and sustainable building practices. Vantage’s global footprint and broad customer relationships, combined with NGD’s growing hyperscale and enterprise U.K. customer base, position us ideally to accelerate the investment and growth of our U.K. business.”
The transaction will be funded with equity commitments from Digital Colony Partners and other investors in Vantage, as well as acquisition debt financing. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020, pending regulatory approval.
Vantage’s Ownership, Acquisitions
Vantagehas been owned by Digital Bridge Holdings since 2017.
In September 2019, Vantage raised $692 million in funding to help expand its data center operations. Key acquisitions have included 4Degrees Colocation for approximately US$200 million and Etix Everywhere for $800 million.
