Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and a Canadian pension fund have joined forces to invest US$800m (€648m) of equity in data centres.
GIC and OPTrust, which manages the CAD19bn OPSEU Pension Plan, have formed EdgeCore Internet Real Estate, an investment vehicle that will develop, acquire and operate centres in North America.
The investment strategy, which will have an investment capacity of close to $2bn, is being run by Mount Elbert Capital Partners, which already manages more than $5bn in data centre real estate and related infrastructure.
GIC will be the lead achor investor. Lee Kok Sun, CIO of GIC Real Estate, said: “As a long-term value investor, we believe the secular growth in data consumption and public cloud usage will generate attractive returns in the data centre sector.”
EdgeCore Internet Real Estate will develop campuses across six markets. Mount Elbert has already acquired land in Mesa, Arizona, and plans to acquire land in Dallas and Reno.
Campus construction will start immediately upon land acquisition, Mount Elbert said. The first completions are expected before the end of the year.
