On Monday, global private equity giant KKR announced that it is teaming up with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the global infrastructure investor that manages more than $79 billion in client assets and owns more than 40 companies. to acquire listed data center REIT CyrusOne.
The all-cash deal values CyrusOne, which owns and operates more than 50 global data centers for around 1,000 customers (about one-fifth of which are Fortune 1000 companies) at $90.50 per share, or $15 billion (including the assumption of debt), a premium of 25 percent to CyrusOne’s closing price on September 27, the last trading day before market speculation of a possible deal surfaced publicly.
KKR invested through its global infrastructure and real estate equity strategies, while GIP committed capital from its global infrastructure funds.
The deal has been unanimously approved by CyrusOne’s board of directors, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. Upon closing, CyrusOne will be a privately held company, wholly owned by KKR and GIP.
“This transaction is a testament to the tremendous work by the entire CyrusOne team. We have built one of the world’s leading data center companies with a presence across key U.S. and international markets supporting our customers’ mission-critical digital infrastructure requirements while creating significant value for our stockholders,” said Dave Ferdman, Co-Founder and interim President and Chief Executive Officer of CyrusOne. “KKR and GIP will provide substantial additional resources and expertise to accelerate our global expansion and help us deliver the timely and reliable solutions at scale that our customers value.”
“Today’s announcement is the culmination of a robust strategic review process conducted by the CyrusOne Board of Directors to determine the best path forward for the Company and maximize stockholder value,” said Lynn Wentworth, Chair of the CyrusOne Board of Directors. “This transaction provides CyrusOne stockholders with significant value and simultaneously positions the Company to even better serve its customers to meet their needs in key markets around the world.”
“CyrusOne has built one of the strongest data center companies in the world and has a strong track record of development and operational expertise in addition to delivering best-in-class service to its customers. We are excited to work together with the Company’s proven team to build on CyrusOne’s market leadership and support their customers’ growing data center infrastructure requirements,” said KKR Managing Director Waldemar Szlezak and GIP Partner Will Brilliant, in a joint statement on the acquisition. “We see numerous opportunities ahead to continue expanding CyrusOne’s footprint across key global digital gateway markets and look forward to leveraging our global resources, access to long term capital and deep expertise to support the Company’s growth.”
Earlier today, CyrusOne announced that it is partnering with the U.K.’s University Technical College Heathrow (UTC Heathrow) and British technology trade association techUK to create the first Data Center UTC in the U.K., an industry-first initiative aimed at helping to address the data center sector’s long-term skills gap.
