Kao Data growth plan boosted by £130m investment

Infratil, a listed global infrastructure business, has agreed to invest up to £130 million in Kao Data, the UK developer and operator of advanced data centres.

Kao Data, through its facility in Harlow, is a sponsor of the Business Weekly Awards. Infratil is a New Zealand company with major operations in the US and Australia: it owns airports, electricity generators, retailers and telecoms networks.

Since starting operations in 2018, Kao Data has created world-class digital infrastructure systems that deliver high performance co-location services for enterprise, cloud, HPC and AI organisations. 

As part of its continued expansion, Kao Data recently signed an agreement to acquire two UK prime location data centres with a long-term anchor lease from a large financial services business. 

This purchase will enable Kao Data to deliver multi-site services for its clients and expand potential capacity to c. 55MW, while delivering long-term trusted operations for clients’ mission-critical infrastructure.

Infratil’s initial investment will fund this growth, after which Infratil will hold 40 per cent of Kao Data alongside current shareholders Legal & General Group, one of Europe’s largest asset managers, and Goldacre – founder of Kao Data and part of Noé group.

Infratil CEO Jason Boyes said: “With global demand for connectivity continuing to rise this is an excellent opportunity to expand our digital infrastructure portfolio and build on our successful data centre platform investment in Australia and New Zealand. 

“We were an early mover into this sector, acquiring CDC Data Centres in 2016 which has delivered exceptional performance. Kao Data provides a compelling strategic growth opportunity for Infratil. 

“It is a rare opportunity to be able to invest in one of the fastest growing data centre markets in the world alongside blue chip partners. We will bring our sector experience alongside our partners’ capability and relationships to continue to scale up this business with the aim of delivering a sizeable multi-site platform.”

Lee Myall, CEO of Kao Data added: “I welcome the announcement of Infratil’s investment in Kao Data and, on behalf of our management team, we look forward to working with them on the next stages of this exciting journey.

“This investment presents a strategic opportunity to accelerate our mission of supporting the computing requirements of advanced industries, and to do so sustainably.”