Singtel and KKR have reached a definitive agreement under which a fund managed by KKR will commit up to S$1.1 billion (~US$800 million) for a 20% stake in Singtel’s regional data centre business.
Singtel looks forward to building on the strong momentum it has achieved to grow the business into one of the region’s leading green and sustainable data centre platforms with rich hyper-connectivity services.
The collaboration enables Singtel to tap on KKR’s expertise investing in data centres and critical telecommunication infrastructure globally in addition to capital. The proceeds from this transaction will be used to accelerate the expansion of the regional data centre business across ASEAN markets, including Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, while exploring markets like Malaysia and others. This will widen the business’ strategic choices, giving a variety of options to monetise in the future.
Mr Bill Chang, CEO of Singtel’s Digital InfraCo, said, “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. Our expertise in designing, building and operating data centres, and our connectivity leadership in the region, together with KKR’s strong track record in supporting digital infrastructure assets and its platform-building expertise makes for a powerful combination.”
Mr Arthur Lang, Group CFO at Singtel, added, “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. 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.”
Mr David Luboff, Partner and Head of Asia Pacific Infrastructure, KKR, said, “We are pleased to provide this tailored solution to support the regional data centre platform of Singtel, one of the most longstanding and distinguished corporations in Singapore and a leading digital infrastructure provider in Asia Pacific. Robust digital infrastructure, including high-quality data centres, will play a crucial role in enabling Southeast Asia’s flourishing digital economy, and Singapore is well-placed to serve as a central hub for the region. We look forward to working closely with Bill, Arthur and Singtel’s talented team to meet this tremendous demand, and sharing our global expertise and network to accelerate the platform’s growth across the region.”
