09 November 2021

Australian infrastructure group Infratil has committed some £130m to Kao Data in London, with plans to expand its portfolio to £500m in the medium term.

Under the terms of the deal, the antipodean firm will obtain a 40% stake in the UK data centre business with current owners Legal & General and Kao Data founder Goldacre retaining a 30% stake each in the firm.

Jason Boyes, Infratil’s chief executive officer (CEO), said his company’s capital would initially fund the construction of a second Kao data centre at the company’s Harlow campus. It will also pay for the acquisition of two other data centres, located close to Harlow, from a major UK financial services group.

Furthermore, Boyes added that with plans to build two more data centres at the Kao Harlow campus, it would bring the portfolio in the medium term to six, offering a total of 55MW capacity catering to a highly-specialised area of highperformance computing.

“Clearly, both L&G and Goldacre have the financial firepower between them to develop Kao to any scale they want, but what they have both been looking for is a partner with deep hands-on, scaling and building data centre business, experience,” he said.

Lee Myall, CEO of Kao Data, added: “This investment presents a strategic opportunity to accelerate our mission of supporting the computing requirements of advanced industries, and to do so sustainably.”