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The investment is KKR’s largest investment in Southeast Asian infrastructure and data centre infrastructure globally
Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), Southeast Asia’s largest telecom operator, is set to sell a 20% stake in its regional data centre business to private investment firm KKR for S$1.1 billion ($807 million).
The deal values Singtel’s total regional data centre business at S$5.5 billion ($4.03 billion), the company revealed in a press release.
Singtel’s data business is part of their Digital InfraCo unit, which was formed in June this year, and has operations in Singapore, India, and Thailand. Singtel will reportedly use the money from the sale to fund the further expansion of its this data centre business in Southeast Asia.
“KKR’s investment underscores the quality of our data centre portfolio and confidence in our plans to scale the business by capitalising on the digitalisation and rapid AI adoption that is transforming this region,” explained Bill Chang, CEO of Singtel’s Singtel’s Digital InfraCo.
“The data centre industry is growing at an accelerated pace given the unprecedented industry trends we are witnessing. KKR is a highly credible partner in the data centre space and we look forward to our strategic partnership in scaling up the platform to become a meaningful growth engine for Singtel,” added Singtel’s Chief Financial Officer Arthur Lang.
“The investment by KKR crystallises the latent value of our data centre assets and we hope this illuminates value for our shareholders in the coming months. With more than S$6 billion being unlocked since we embarked on our strategic reset two years ago, we continue to focus on unlocking value for our shareholders.”
For KKR, meanwhile, the investment forms part of the company’s wider Asian infrastructure strategy, with the firm noting that it will have option to increase its stake to 25% in 2027.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of the year.
KKR has been investing heavily in telecoms infrastructure for several years now. Last year, the firm partnered with investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) to acquire data centre provider CyrusOne, in a deal worth $15 billion. Later that same year, KKR worked with GIP once again to jointly purchase an 81.7% stake in Vodafone’s telecoms tower spin-off, Vantage Towers.
More recently, KKR is perhaps most in the news telecoms news as the frontrunner to buy Telecom Italia’s network assets, having had an almost €11 billion bid to take over the telco rejected back in 2021.
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