Keppel Corp unit to invest in data centre in China's Tonghu Smart City

THE Alpha Data Centre Fund (Alpha DC Fund), managed by Keppel Capital's wholly-owned unit Alpha Investment Partners, is set to invest 1.5 billion yuan (S$300 million) to acquire and develop a data centre in Tonghu Smart City in Huizhou in southern China.

The Alpha DC Fund, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, entered into an agreement to acquire a 100 per cent stake in Huizhou Bike Property, a fully-owned subsidiary of Chinese property developer Country Garden Holdings. Huizhou Bike will own the greenfield data centre development.

Alvin Mah, chief executive of Alpha Investment Partners, said in a statement that this will mark the fund's first asset in China, which is apparently pushing ahead a "New Infrastructure campaign" focusing on "information-based, converged and innovative infrastructure". The data centre will be sited near Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan.

"This investment will provide further diversification to the fund's portfolio, and enhance the risk-adjusted returns for our investors," he added.

When fully developed - although the statement did not say when - the data centre in Huizhou will fit more than 6,000 high-density racks and have China Data Centre Class A GB-standard equivalent specifications.

The data centre, which is expected to have gross floor area (GFA) of 486,700 sq ft, will be developed in two phases, with completion expected in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

The data centre site could also add another 538,200sq ft to its GFA, which would bring the total GFA to about 1.02 million sq ft.

Country Garden will combine its capabilities with Keppel Data Centres' in undertaking the construction of the data centre's "core and shell".

Keppel Data Centres will also collaborate with local data centre operator Shenzhen Huateng Smart Technology to implement "global best practices for data centre operations" in this data centre.