Interxion acquired a controlling interest in Icolo, a Kenyan data center operator. Interxion will own approximately 70% of Icolo’s common shares with the remaining shares held by PRIF and Icolo management. Interxion also made a strategic partnership with the Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund (PRIF), which will invest in Icolo. PRIF and Interxion will collaborate and co-invest with In on expansion initiatives across the African continent. The transaction is expected to close in 1Q 2020. Financial terms were not disclosed.
A rising demand from cloud and content platforms
According to Icolo, which has two data centers in Kenya currently in operation, there is a strong demand from cloud and content platforms and across the enterprise segment. Acquisitions of 25,000 sqm of land for further expansion of Icolo’s data center footprint are in progress in both Mombasa and Nairobi. In Mombasa, Icolo is positioned to benefit from the growing number of submarine cable consortia that have expressed their intention to land in Kenya.
“We are pleased to announce this partnership with Pembani Remgro, one of the leading TMT infrastructure investment firms in Africa.” said David Ruberg, Interxion’s Chief Executive Officer.
“Their deep understanding of the African communications and technology sectors is highly complementary to Interxion’s proven expertise in serving the mission-critical needs of the customers in our carrier and cloud-neutral data centres. Our ambitions in this region are substantial, reflecting the opportunity for the cloud and content platforms to bring several hundreds of millions of people online in Africa over the next decade. We look forward to working with Icolo’s founder and CEO, Ranjith Cherickel, and his team to build on the solid foundations they have created,”
he added.
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