3i Infrastructure is investing around €300m to acquire a majority stake in Norwegian data centre campus Lefdal Mine Datacenter (LMD) from a fund managed by Columbia Threadneedle Investments.
The largest investor in the Columbia Threadneedle Investments-managed fund will be reinvesting alongside 3i Infrastructure. As part of the deal, a small portfolio of operating renewable assets is also being acquired.
3i Investments, the company’s investment manager, will control the overall investment, which will total around €400m.
LMD, located on Norway’s west coast, maintains 37MW of operational capacity and is currently expanding its footprint with a further 43MW of contracted capacity under construction, providing “an attractive earnings growth outlook”, 3i said.
3i Infrastructure said this latest investment will be funded by reinvesting some of the €1.14bn proceeds from its sale of its 71% stake in airport ground support equipment lessor TCR.
Bernardo Sottomayor, managing partner and head of European infrastructure, 3i Investments, said: “We are delighted to be redeploying some of the proceeds from the TCR exit into a high-quality asset like LMD.
“This transaction offers an attractive risk/return profile, whilst further diversifying our portfolio into a new subsector. The contracted existing capacity provides strong downside protection, and we see attractive growth opportunities to create value.”
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