On Feb 14, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC announced that it has formed an investment vehicle called EdgeCore Internet Real Estate with two other companies to build and operate data centres across North America.
According to its website, EdgeCore is a US-based provider of highly scalable, cloud-connected data centre solutions. It is committed to enabling the growth and performance of its customers across its highly scalable platform of state-of-the-art data centres.
EdgeCore Internet Real Estate is formed to develop, acquire, and operate data centres across North America. The investment vehicle is set up by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Denver-based investment firm Mount Elbert Capital Partners (Mount Elbert), and Canadian pension fund OPTrust.
In this investment, GIC will be the lead anchor investor in EdgeCore Internet Real Estate.
According to Chief Investment Officer of GIC Real Estate Mr Lee Kok Sun, GIC is pleased to partner with Mount Elbert and OPTrust in this venture.
“As a long-term value investor, we believe the secular growth in data consumption and public cloud usage will generate attractive returns in the data centre sector,” Mr Lee said.
Initially, EdgeCore will be capitalised with over US$800 million, equivalent to around S$1 billion, of equity targeted to support approximately US$2 billion in data centre development and investment. EdgeCore Internet Real Estate’s initial roll out of its North American data centre platform will include campus developments across six markets.
EdgeCore has acquired land in Mesa and Arizona. Prior to the end of this quarter, it intends to acquire sites in Dallas in Texas, and Reno in Nevada. Construction on each campus will commence immediately upon acquisition.
With each campus designed to deliver between 100 MW and 200 MW of critical power to customers, the Company plans to complete the first building in late 2018.
Moving forward, EdgeCore intends to acquire more sites in the second quarter of this year. This will be in three complementary Tier I markets, with a view toward commencing construction on each campus within the year.
“We are pleased and honoured to join forces with GIC and OPTrust, which we view as two of the world’s most capable and sophisticated investors. We are excited to execute upon our shared vision of creating a scalable North American data centre platform and we look forward to expanding with GIC and OPTrust as we work to grow EdgeCore Internet Real Estate beyond our initial roll out,” Chairman and CEO of EdgeCore Internet Real Estate and Mount Elbert Mr Tom Ray said.
