Singapore’s GIC, DigitalBridge, ADIA, Stonepeak, Permira, among others tapped for Carlyle’s 24% in Nxtra

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

ADIA, Stonepeak, DigitalBridge, KKR and Permira are among those tapped to acquire US buyout group Carlyle’s 24.04% stake in Bharti Airtel’s data centre arm, Nxtra Data Ltd (NDL), people aware of the matter said.

The Carlyle Group, among the world’s largest investment firms, is looking to sell the stake for Rs 7,000-7,500 crore, valuing Airtel’s data centre unit at Rs 24,000-29,000 crore ($3-3.5 billion, inclusive of debt), the people cited said.

Bharti Airtel owns 75.96% of Nxtra Data, a leading player in India’s data centre industry. Airtel has first right of refusal on the stake but is reckoned to have waived it, said the people cited.

“Carlyle is working with Bank of America to help monetise its investment in Nxtra,” one of them said. “A formal sale process will get launched in the coming days and non-binding bids are expected by end-March.”

The buyout group had bought the stake in Nxtra Data for Rs 1,788 crore in July 2020.

“The valuation translates to around 20-23 times the FY25 ebitda. Once closed, this could become one of Carlyle’s biggest paydays from India,” said one of the persons.

Data centres are being viewed as long-term havens for investment, leading to a private equity rush. Ten of the dozen largest deals in the past 12 months have involved private buyers, with the only exceptions being the Equinix acquisition of Entel’s data centres and Digital Realty’s purchase of a majority stake in Teraco. In the US, only six of the 20 largest colocation players are now publicly traded companies.


Carlyle,