The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and partners are investing US$350 million in the Alpha Data Centre Fund, which aims to develop a portfolio of new and existing data centres in Europe and Asia-Pacific.
CPPIB’s partner Alpha Investment Partners Ltd. manages public and private real estate funds and is a subsidiary of Keppel Capital, an Asia-based asset manager. Its other partner, Keppel Data Centres Pte Ltd., has experience in owning, developing and managing carrier-neutral data centre facilities.
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“The continued strong growth in data requirements globally has driven demand for quality data centre space, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where digital infrastructure is relatively underdeveloped,” said Jimmy Phua, managing director and head of real estate investments for Asia at the CPPIB, in a news release.
The pension fund also has the option to invest another US$150 million. With its initial allocation, the Alpha Data Centre Fund’s combined and co-investment interest will be double its initial target size of US$500 million. Once fully invested and leveraged, the fund could potentially manage US$2.3 billion, the release noted.
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In other news, the CPPIB and Parkway Inc. have completed the previously announced merger of the Texas-based real estate investment trust with a CPPIB affiliate for US$1.2 billion.
The real estate investment trust focuses on office properties in upmarket Houston neighborhoods. The completion of the merger followed all conditions of the closing being met, including the approval by Parkway stockholders on Sept. 25. The stockholders were bought out at a cash payment of US$23.05 per share of Parkway common stock held from the record date of Parkway’s cash dividend through the closing date.