TARGET EXPANSION ACROSS NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE

An investor group led by Colony Capital Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement with Vantage Data Centers to form a strategic partnership that is worth $3.5 billion.

As part of the agreement, the consortium led by Colony Capital will invest $1.2 billion in Vantage’s portfolio. As announced, the consortium appears to be acquiring major stakes across Vantage’s 12 stabilized North American data centers, which span more than 1.4 million gross square feet and 150MW of IT capacity across key strategic markets in Santa Clara, California; Quincy, Washington; Montreal and Quebec City, Canada.

“This strategic partnership with the Colony Capital-led investor group provides Vantage with a partner that deeply understands digital infrastructure,” said Sureel Choksi, president and CEO of Vantage.

“Vantage and its investor group are now even more well positioned to capitalize on a number of attractive market opportunities and deploy the necessary capital to drive innovation, deliver state-of-the-art facilities for our customers, and accelerate our expansion plans in existing and new markets globally.”

According to Colony Capital, Vantage’s management team, led by Choksi, will continue to manage and operate the selected facilities as part of its global data center footprint. Vantage will also maintain the same level of superior service to its customers in each market.

On the other hand, the capital raised through this transaction will be used by Vantage to accelerate the expansion of its hyperscale data center footprints across North America and Europe.

“This innovative transaction establishes the most valuable portfolio of hyperscale data center assets in North America, backed and managed by the best-in-class management team at Vantage,” said Marc Ganzi, CEO of Colony Capital.

“As Colony continues to build momentum around our strategic transformation to digital infrastructure, this investment demonstrates our commitment to acquire high-quality digital assets on our balance sheet. We expect this will benefit our shareholders by providing consistent, predictable earnings from long-term leases with the highest-caliber, investment-grade customers.”

$200 million of the investment is expected to come from Colony Capital alone, while the remaining $1 billion will be funded by other members of the consortium. However, Colony Capital is already a significant stake holder of Vantage data center through the acquisition of Digital Bridge, a parent company of Vantage Data Center.