The datacenter assets investors are looking at in Latin America

The booming datacenter market in Latin America is attracting investors with diverse profiles and various investment goals.

In Brazil alone, the region's main market, investments in datacenter construction are expected to reach around US$400mn this year and jump to US$1.5bn in 2026, according to real estate consultancy JLL.

Currently, there are LatAm datacenter companies for sale or looking for new investors to fund their operations, for example through the acquisition of minority stakes in the private equity model.

These include traditional players such as Scala, Ascenty and Tivit/Takoda.

Also Read Spotlight: The top lenders behind LatAm's leading datacenter groups

Tivit, which spun off its datacenter unit and named it Takoda in 2023, is a particular case.

This is not the first time the company has been for sale. According to a market source, this is the fifth market sounding regarding the company's operations. This time, the bank mandated by Tivit's controller, British fund Apax Partners, is JP Morgan.

Previously, Bank of America and Itaú had been mandated with the same objective.

Speaking to BNamericas on condition of anonymity, the CEO of a datacenter company in Brazil said that he had previously evaluated the asset, but that today he is "100%" not considering the transaction.

"Their results are good, as is the portfolio. But it's an enterprise portfolio and more 'Brazil-only'. Our growth is based on international clients," said the executive, whose company is betting on hyperscale offerings, aimed at big techs and global cloud companies.

Tivit launched Takoda in January 2023, announcing it was a spin-off of its operations focused on serving the datacenter market. The two companies have the same shareholders, but operate with different teams and book separate revenues.

At the time, Tivit said Takoda's investments would be 1.2bn reais (US$206mn) over the following five years and that the new company had inherited 65 clients from its base, including federal oil company Petrobras, operator TIM and development bank BNDES.

Takoda operates four datacenters: two in São Paulo, SP01 and SP02; one in Rio de Janeiro (RJ01) and one in Colombian capital Bogotá (BG01).

Scala

In the case of Scala, which was created in 2020 and has grown to become the largest company in terms of installed and booked datacenter capacity in Latin America, the hunt is on for a new investor to back the company's massive investment plans.

The DigitalBridge-controlled company hired Deutsche Bank to find a new investment partner.

According to a source directly involved in the negotiations, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, around 20 "serious buyers" assessed the investment with the German bank.

Scala has narrowed these down to a handful of potential investors and plans to decide on the new partner and the size of its stake in around 60 days, said this source.

Among the shortlisted candidates are Canadian funds CDPQ and CPPIB, Singapore’s sovereign fund GIC, and the US-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). 

The equity stake being negotiated ranges from 50% to up to 100%, which would imply the exit of DigitalBridge from the business.

Scala has an estimated enterprise value of US$5bn, BNamericas has learned, and would be on track this year to deliver twice the return that was expected by DigitalBridge by 2028. 

The company originated from an investment by DigitalBridge's first fund, then Digital Colony. The US group is now raising resources for its third fund.

In addition to DigitalBridge, Scala's other investors are the International Finance Corporation, a branch of the World Bank Group, and the Olayan Group, a multinational company with a multibillion-dollar global investment portfolio. 

In 2021, DigitalBridge secured US$100mn from IFC for Scala's projects. 

Other lenders and financial backers of Scala include Coatue and IMCO, from whom Scala last year secured US$500mn. 

Scala also issued green bonds in 2023 and 2024, with coordinators and participants including Bradesco BBI, UBS BB, Santander and Itaú BBA. 

Scala has around 159MW of installed capacity in its datacenters in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, and the outlook is to reach 196MW in the short term.

Ascenty

A joint venture between US digital infrastructure investment fund Digital Realty and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Ascenty could also see the entry of a new investor.

This process is being conducted directly by Brookfield. The company, however, has not yet defined a financial adviser to carry out market sounding.

"The company does not comment on market rumors. What I can tell you is this: The fact is that our segment is a highly capital-intensive business," Marcos Siqueira, Ascenty’s former COO and currently chief revenue officer and head of strategy, told BNamericas last month.

"A 100MW datacenter requires a lot of resources. We're privileged to have two very strong investors. Digital Realty and Brookfield are very well capitalized. We're always analyzing how we can build more and more, at a lower cost and with affordable financing," he added.

Ascenty was acquired by Digital Realty in 2018 from private equity firm Great Hill Partners for US$1.8bn.

The company has primarily focused on enterprise contracts for traditional colocation services, but the biggest growth opportunities are related to contracts with large hyperscale companies. This segment is dominated by Scala and Odata.

This is likely driving Ascenty's strategy of seeking a new investor and additional investment to compete in the capital-intensive large-scale datacenter segment.

At present, Ascenty has 36 sites in Latin America, including projects that are active and ones under development.

Of the total, 25 datacenters are in São Paulo, three in Querétaro in Mexico, three in Chilean capital Santiago, two in Rio de Janeiro, one in Fortaleza in northeast Brazil and two in Bogotá.

At the end of December, Ascenty had 152MW in operational capacity for its datacenters, Digital Realty data indicates, up 2MW from end-September, with growth concentrated in the datacenters in São Paulo.