AirTrunk sets sights on APAC expansion, backed by fresh investment

Macquarie has completed the acquisition of an 88% stake in AirTrunk in a consortium led by Macquarie Asia Infrastructure Fund 2 (MAIF2), a MIRA-managed infrastructure fund, as well as other MIRA-managed partners.

The stake was acquired from Goldman Sachs, Sixth Street Partners and founder Robin Khuda. Following this acquisition, Khuda retains a material stake in the business and continues to operate as CEO supported by the existing executive management team.

According to a statement, the latest investment values AirTrunk at more than A$3 billion and will accelerate its expansion across the Asia-Pacific (APAC).

AirTrunk offers a hyperscale data center platform for large cloud, content and enterprise customers across APAC.

In 2017, the company launched its first data center in Western Sydney. Since then, AirTrunk has expanded to operate facilities in Sydney West and North as well as Melbourney, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The company states it has an extensive expansion plan for other markets and to further develop the five existing data centers, which will be able to deliver a combined capacity of more than 450 megawatts.

According to AirTrunk, population growth, digital adoption and an accelerated move to the cloud has resulted in an increased demand by cloud and content providers for hyperscale data center solutions.

To meet this demand, AirTrunk remains focused on building scalable and sustainable infrastructure in key APAC markets.

MIRA is an alternative asset manager with experience in developing digital infrastructure assets and assisting management to operate them, with investments in data centers, fibre assets and telecommunication tower businesses across Europe, North America, and APAC.

MIRA Asia Pacific head Frank Kwok says, "The global data center industry has grown significantly in recent years, driven by an exponential increase in data consumption, increasing cloud applications and the shift from internal IT infrastructure to outsourced resources.

"In the Asia-Pacific, this thematic is amplified by the region's emerging economies and growing populations, leading to increasing data usage and a greater need for in-country computing workloads and storage."

Speaking on the investment in AirTruck specifically, Kwok says, "Our investors are attracted to hyperscale data center providers such as AirTrunk because they have attributes such as long-term revenue streams and demand resilience throughout market cycles.

"We are impressed by the quality of AirTrunk's digital infrastructure platform, its growing footprint throughout key Asia-Pacific markets, and its focus on supporting clients such as major cloud providers. This is a business with an impressive track record of execution for its customers, delivering capacity on time and on budget.

AirTrunk CEO Robin Khuda says, "AirTrunk has established itself as the dominant player in the APAC hyperscale market, rapidly growing our footprint in a disciplined way and securing a number of long-term customer commitments.

"The investment will enable AirTrunk to continue to deliver secure, reliable and scalable infrastructure for our customers in existing and new markets."

He says, "We look forward to working with MIRA's expert team to usher in a new and exciting era for AirTrunk, building on the strong foundation we've established over the past three years.

"Their investment will enable us to roll out our rapidly expanding hyperscale platform across the region. MIRA's strong track record with infrastructure investments in APAC will provide valuable experience as AirTrunk consolidates and expands its Asia-Pacific presence.