KKR has linked up with data centre entrepreneur and executive Franek Sodzawiczny to establish Global Technical Realty (GTR), a build-to-suit and roll-up acquisition data centre platform in Europe.
KKR will contribute $1 bn (€0.9 bn) to the platform, primarily from its third global infrastructure fund, which may be supplemented with additional commitments over time, to develop and build data centres for large technology companies through GTR across Europe over the coming years. Alongside debt financing, KKR’s equity commitment is expected to support more than $2.5 bn of asset development and investment, including opportunities from a highly active commercial pipeline as the demand for third-party data centre provision continues to grow.
GTR has partnered with Mercury Engineering, a European engineering contractor with deep experience in data centre construction, to design and develop a data centre product specifically catered to the needs of hyperscale cloud service providers.
‘The data centre market in Europe presents a unique opportunity to invest behind the secular trend of increased cloud services adoption and demand for data,’ said Waldemar Szlezak, managing director of KKR.
Andrew Peisch, director of KKR, added: ‘The 25 years of industry experience that Franek brings to the table, alongside the rest of the management team, is impressive and exactly the kind of know-how we sought out to invest in the sector.’
Franek Sodzawiczny, formerly the Founder & CEO of Zenium Data Centers and Co-Founder & CDO of Sentrum, will be joined by a number of experienced professionals with deep roots in the data centre industry across Europe as part of the GTR management team, including Martin Carroll, formerly Lead director, EMEA Data Center Advisory at JLL; Mark Trevor, formerly partner and head of EMEA Data Center Transaction and Advisory at Cushman & Wakefield and Tom Sodzawiczny, formerly associate director of Capital Markets at Colliers International.
GTR CEO and founder Franek Sodzawiczny said: ‘We are thrilled to have found an investor like KKR that shares our vision for the future of the data centre market. KKR’s breadth of resources and tremendous expertise will allow GTR to fully participate in this growing market and provide a solid foundation for GTR’s future growth and success.’
KKR was advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Global Technical Realty was advised by Charles Russell Speechlys.
