New Investor Consortium to Acquire 27% Interest in DataBank Positioning it to Capture Edge Infrastructure Demand Over the Next Decade
DataBank, a leading provider of enterprise-class colocation, interconnection, and managed services, announced a recapitalization led by long-term institutional investors Swiss Life Asset Management AG (“SLAM”), EDF Invest and current DataBank investor DigitalBridge. The initial stage of the recapitalization is being structured as a sale of ownership interests with SLAM and EDF acquiring 27% of the fully diluted equity interests in DataBank from existing investors for $1.2 billion.
The transaction will enable DataBank to execute a 10-year plan that capitalizes on edge infrastructure growth in the U.S. Since 2016, DataBank has been progressively building an ecosystem of interconnect and data center locations in over two dozen Tier 1 and Tier 2 U.S. metros that it believed would serve as the geographic foundation of a more decentralized, next-generation Internet infrastructure platform. Today, with over 65 data center assets in 27+ markets, DataBank has more data centers in more U.S. metros than any other data center provider in the US, public or private.
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“This recapitalization allows us to accelerate our expansion efforts and capture the substantial secular growth in edge computing which we believe will be at multi-gigawatt opportunity,” said Raul K. Martynek, DataBank’s CEO. “DataBank is strategically positioned as the leading platform to deliver geographically distributed colocation and interconnect edge solutions, as the shift from traditional centralized infrastructures continues to evolve to the edge.”
Marc Ganzi, CEO of DigitalBridge, said, “Since we led the acquisition of DataBank in 2016, we have scaled DataBank’s footprint, capacity and customer base in key metro areas across the United States, transforming DataBank from a business serving three markets with six facilities to the premier domestic edge infrastructure platform serving twenty-seven markets across more than sixty-five facilities. This transaction will catalyze the next phase of DataBank’s growth with a new group of marquis investors poised to benefit from the continued powerful infrastructure expansion at the edge and DigitalBridge’s track record and expertise investing across the digital infrastructure ecosystem.”
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The recapitalization is also expected to result in additional new investors acquiring ownership interests in DataBank prior to the recapitalization’s expected completion in the third quarter of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions and receipt of required regulatory approvals.
“This new investor group will provide the financial backing required to continue to scale DataBank’s leading edge infrastructure platform,” said Kevin Ooley, DataBank’s President and CFO. “Swiss Life and EDF’s long term outlook on the sector, perfectly aligns with our view on the significant opportunity around edge demand.”
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