Brian Groen (PCCW DC / Vantage Data Centers)
United States-based hyperscale data centre campus operator Vantage Data Centers has increased its footprint in the Southeast Asia market after finalising its acquisition of PCCW’s data centre business (PCCW DC).
Digital Bridge Group, the lead investor behind Vantage Data Centers, revealed in July that it would acquire the data centre business of PCCW by funds affiliated with its investment management platform.
Now the acquisition is complete, Vantage Data Centers sees much of its Asia Pacific expansion plan come to fruition. The company, headquartered in Colorado, announced its expansion into the Asia Pacific market in September, the effort to be accomplished through two acquisitions.
First up, Vantage acquired Agile Data Centers, a data centre provider in the Asia Pacific region involved in developing greenfield hyperscale campuses, totaling 168MW of critical IT load in Tokyo, Osaka, and Melbourne, Australia. The second acquisition was that of the data centre portfolio of PCCW.
PCCW DC is considered one of the region’s leading data centre businesses, with approximately 100MW of existing and expansion critical IT load across multiple facilities in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.
The deal sees Brian Groen, formerly PCCW DC’s senior vice president of data centre and digital transformation, join Vantage as president, Asia Pacific (APAC).
Meanwhile, Giles Proctor, who previously served as Vantage's president in APAC is now chief operating officer of Vantage's APAC business.
"The closing of this second acquisition is a critical piece to our rapid expansion in key Asia Pacific markets," said Sureel Choksi, president and CEO of Vantage Data Centers. "We now have a total of 23 campuses across five continents led by highly experienced regional teams, including Brian Groen and Giles Proctor.
“I'm excited for Brian and Giles to partner together in their new roles to lead our APAC business as we continue to expand and scale to meet the growing demand of customers globally,” he added.
According to Groen, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur represent unparalleled connectivity hubs for companies doing business across Asia.
“We have a strong sales pipeline with existing facilities and several greenfield developments underway to support our customers' growing businesses,” he said. “If you are a hyperscale company, a cloud provider or a large global enterprise, we can serve your needs in leading business centres throughout the region.”
For Jon Mauck, senior managing director of DigitalBridge Investment Management, Asia Pacific is a high growth region with hyperscale, cloud and enterprise companies that need a global digital infrastructure platform on which to expand their businesses.
"Vantage is now in a position to quickly become a leading provider in these markets and offer a superior product with high reliability, fast speed to market and a commitment to sustainability,” Mauck said.
