DigitalBridge Weighs Sale of Vantage Data Centers Stake

(Bloomberg) -- DigitalBridge Group Inc. is considering the sale of a minority stake in Vantage Data Centers, a deal that could raise more than $1.5 billion for the infrastructure specialist, people with knowledge of the matter said.

US-based DigitalBridge is working with UBS Group AG to gauge buyer interest, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private. A stake in Vantage Data Centers is likely to draw interest from financial investors and other infrastructure funds, they said. 

Shares of DigitalBridge were up 1% at 9:33 a.m. Wednesday in New York, giving the company a market value of about $2 billion. 

Deliberations are in the early stages and there’s no certainty that DigitalBridge will proceed with a formal sale process, the people said. Representatives for DigitalBridge and UBS declined to comment, while Vantage Data Centers couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Data centers continue to attract interest as infrastructure funds amass ever-bigger pools of capital and seek investments that can take advantage of booming demand for cloud services. Qatari telecom firm Ooredoo QPSC is considering carving out its data center unit to attract new investors, while billionaire Patrick Drahi is exploring interest in a portfolio of data centers he owns in France, Bloomberg News reported last year. 

Vantage Data Centers is among the largest operators in the sector, running about 26 campuses across five continents, according to its website. The company has more than 10 data centers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and employs over 1,000 people globally.