AtlasEdge, DigitalBridge and Liberty Global’s pan-European edge data centre provider, has acquired a leading data centre provider in Germany from Star Capital.

AtlasEdge is investing an undisclosed sum to buy Stuttgart-headquartered Datacenter One (DC1), in a deal which furthers AtlasEdge’s expansion across Europe.

DC1 operates several data centres at various locations in Germany. In addition, the company plans and builds turnkey data centres within six to nine months.

AtlasEdge said the footprint of DC1’s facilities complement AtlasEdge’s existing operations in Berlin and Hamburg, increasing AtlasEdge’s capability to service customers across five regional German markets with significant “ready-to-sell” capacity.

It also comes at a time when the first wave of edge data centre deployments is accelerating across Europe, with growing customer demand for digital infrastructure closer to the end-user driven by enterprises and larger platforms, AtlasEdge said.

Edge data centres are small data centres located close to a network’s edge.

Wolfgang Kaufmann the DC1’s CEO will be joining AtlasEdge’s management team.

“This is a highly strategic transaction for AtlasEdge”, commented Giuliano Di Vitantonio, CEO, AtlasEdge. “Germany is an important part of our expansion plans and a market that has seen customer demand rise across multiple metros. Acquiring DC1 transforms AtlasEdge into Germany’s leading distributed platform, with ready-to-sell capacity in key locations across the country. We look forward to working with our new colleagues and continuing to grow our footprint across the continent.”

Star acquired a majority stake in DC1 (formerly known as Globalways) in August 2016 and initially committed, in partnership with the founders, €60m of growth capital for the company’s expansion into the German regional market.

As part of the strategy Star and management set out to establish DC1 as a leading pure-play colocation provider in Germany, separating and selling the hosting and metro connectivity divisions in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Wolfgang Kaufmann, CEO of DC1, said: “The joint expertise of DC1 and AtlasEdge, together with the increased scale and customer offering that this deal enables is a real win. We have experienced first-hand the rising demand and growth potential in the German market, and this is a fantastic next step for us. Our combined locations, ethos and ambition are all the right ingredients, and we’re very excited to be joining AtlasEdge.”

DH Capital, a division of Citizens, acted as financial advisor and Hogan Lovells acted as legal counsel to AtlasEdge. Jefferies acted as financial advisor and King & Wood Mallesons acted as legal counsel to STAR.

To read the latest edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.

Topics