Bridge Data Centres expands APAC footprint; acquires data centres in Malaysia

By Digital News Asia May 11, 2018

Acquires two data centres located in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, from Permodalan Nasional Bhd
Comprise about one million square feet of data centre facilities and 20MW of critical IT load

Bridge Data Centres expands APAC footprint; acquires data centres in Malaysia

BRIDGE Data Centres (Bridge), a regional data centre services provider headquartered in Singapore, on May 10 announced the completion of its acquisition of two data centres located in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, from Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), a Malaysian Government Pension Fund.

The acquisition will support Bridge’s expansion of its Asia Pacific operations, as the company looks to provide reliable, scalable and low-latency colocation services for the region’s rapidly-growing digital economy.

Bridge is a Bain Capital Private Equity portfolio company and maintains offices in Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur and San Francisco.

Bridge’s two new data centres, renamed MY01 and MY02 under Bridge Data Centres Malaysia Sdn Bhd, comprise approximately one million square feet of data centre facilities and 20 megawatts (MW) of critical IT load. MY01 and MY02 serve many domestic and global blue-chip customers from a diverse set of industries, and Bridge is planning to expand this footprint in Cyberjaya with a contiguous development of a further 20 MW, to cater for its large customer’s scaling needs, as Asia Pacific prepares to become the most important data centre regional market by 2020, according to industry analysts.

“We are excited to announce the completion of this complex transaction,” said Michael Foust, executive chairman of Bridge Data Centres.

“There has been strong demand for our data centre services in Malaysia, and we will continue to invest in campus-style developments, with energy-efficient buildings, to serve the growing needs of our customers.”

This announcement follows Bridge’s acquisition in November 2017, of the two data centres’ operating business and the rights to a dedicated fibre ring within Cyberjaya connecting the data centres, from CSF Group, an AIM-listed regional data centre management firm.

Bridge is also commencing construction of a new global best-in-class greenfield data centre in Mumbai, India, in June 2018. Expected to be ready for service by 4Q 2019, the 350,000 square feet facility will be certified Tier III by The Uptime Institute and will provide 18 MW of IT load capacity for global and domestic customers.

“Due to sustained double-digit growth in the data centre industry, it has been challenging to train and retain the right talent” said Kris Kumar, CEO Bridge Data Centres.

“We believe that our people are our competitive differentiator, and we have maintained a strong focus on building a true enterprise platform as we expand into further markets in the region. The acquisition in Malaysia brings a further 90 data centre professionals into the Bridge family and we are excited at leveraging their local knowledge to invest and grow our business there.”

Bridge is also exploring other geographies in APAC, in order to develop a balanced portfolio across the region. Its investment efforts are led by Pithambar (Preet) Gona who also serves as CFO.

“To echo Kris’ comments, we have steadily built an investment team that can underwrite large greenfield developments, as well as execute on existing assets with complex transactions like this one we have announced today” said Gona.

“Consistent with our strategy of developing our platform that serves our key global customers in developed and emerging markets, we recently agreed terms to acquire an industrial facility in Singapore and to redevelop it into a large facility serving the rapidly evolving needs of our customers in this key market. We expect there will be more announcements soon on our activities in Singapore and the rest of the region.”