Digital Realty, the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, has announced the successful completion of its previously announced agreement to acquire a majority interest in Teraco, a leading carrier-neutral data center and interconnection services provider in South Africa, from a consortium of investors, including Berkshire Partners and Permira, in a transaction valuing Teraco at approximately $3.5 billion.
The acquisition of Teraco adds South Africa to Digital Realty’s three existing markets on the continent, including Kenya, Mozambique, and Nigeria. The strategic importance of these four markets has been enhanced by the recent and ongoing implementation of new subsea cable networks encircling Africa. Combined with Digital Realty’s highly connected facilities in Marseille, our customers have a range of strategic connectivity hubs from which to serve all corners of the African market.
As South Africa’s largest and most densely interconnected data center platform, Teraco supports the rapid growth of the continent’s internet community through its expanding portfolio of data centers. Teraco’s experienced management team, growing multi-national customer base, quality infrastructure and ownership of NAPAfrica, the continent’s largest Internet Exchange Point, are key differentiators that position the company for sustainable growth.
“We are very excited to complete this transformative transaction that positions Digital Realty as the premier data center and connectivity provider on the high-growth African continent,” says A. William Stein, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Realty. “Today’s milestone gives us significant regional scale and access to a premier, high-quality portfolio in Africa’s largest market, enhancing our ability to serve growing customer demand for connectivity in the region. We’re thrilled to strengthen our global platform and deepen our commitment to investment in Africa, as we capitalize on the tremendous opportunity in the region.”
“Teraco has made significant progress in achieving our strategic objectives, including improving the connectivity and accessibility of our data centers, in supporting the rapid digital transformation in the region,” says Jan Hnizdo, Chief Executive Officer, Teraco. “Africa is poised to remain a high growth, high-demand area for data center solutions and our combined, diversified platform will further enable us to support our customers in the pan-Africa region and around the world.”
With the acquisition, Teraco will be known as Teraco: A Digital Realty Company.
