BOSTON AND LONDON– (BUSINESS WIRE)–Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based global investment firm, and Permira, a growth-focused global private equity firm, today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement with Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, for Digital Realty to acquire a majority of their respective stakes in Teraco Data Environments (Teraco or the Company), Africas largest carrier-neutral data center and interconnection services provider.
Berkshire Partners and Permira funds, along with existing investor van Rooyen Group investors, will keep minority equity in the Company. Teracos current management, including Chief Executive Officer Jan Hnizdo and other significant investors, will continue to manage the Company.
Teraco’s interconnection-rich facilities offer secure colocation and related services to over 600 enterprise clients, including cloud, content, and carrier clients. The Company, which was founded in 2008, has seven state-of the-art data centers located in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Teraco is a key part of modern enterprises digital transformation, cloud strategy and the African internets backbone.
“Drew Walker, Principal at Berkshire Partners, stated that it was a privilege to partner at Teraco with Jan and his team. Teraco has experienced exceptional growth in the first few years after our investment. It leverages its interconnected ecosystems and ongoing investments in expansion capacity. This track record of stellar execution has helped to increase its leadership position within the fast-growing Sub-Saharan African Data Center market. As digital infrastructure investors for almost 25 years, we are delighted to continue our partnership and welcome Digital Realty, who will add significant expertise and resources the Teraco platform.
Teraco has grown to be one of the most distinctive data center platforms in the world over the past seven years. Teraco is a unique combination of Africa’s Cloud home and the African Internet Exchange Napafrica. Teraco offers an interconnection-rich ecosystem. Pierre Pozzo from Permira said Jan and his team ought to be proud of what they achieved. Since our initial investment in 2015, it has been a pleasure supporting the Company. During that time earnings have increased by almost 20x organically. We look forward partnering with Digital Realty in order to further accelerate Sub-Saharan Africa’s digital transformation powered primarily by Teraco.
It was a pleasure to partner with Berkshire, Permira and the Teraco management teams, and I look forward t o continuing our relationship, stated Grant van Rooyen (President of van Rooyen Group). It was a satisfying experience for me as a South African to invest in the digital infrastructure of the region. I remain optimistic about the opportunities for Teraco, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Company’s ability to serve its domestic customers and international clients.
As we take the next step of the evolution of Teraco we are happy to be joining forces in Digital Realty with a strategic partner and are equally excited to continue our relationships Berkshire and Permira. Jan Hnizdo is Chief Executive Officer at Teraco. Many companies continue to place digital infrastructure at the forefront of their operations in a variety industries and geographies. We are proud to continue our partnership with the Berkshire & Permira teams, who have valuable experience that has greatly contributed to our growth over the past few years.
The transaction, which is subjected to South African regulatory approvals, is expected close in the first quarter of 2022.
About Berkshire Partners
Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based company, has a history of more than 35 years in investment. Berkshire Private Equity made more than 145 investments in private equity since its inception. It has a strong history in partnering with management teams to help grow the companies in question. Examples of communications and digital infrastructure investments are Comlinkdata, Crown Castle and Lightower, Telx and Torres Unidas. The firm also invests directly in technology, industrials, and healthcare companies. For more information and to view a complete list, visit www.berkshirepartners.com.
About Permira
Permira is a global investor firm that supports businesses with growth ambitions. The firm was established in 1985. It advises funds that have assets under management of around US$65bn (58bn). They also make long-term majority or minority investments. Permira funds made around 300 private equity investments across four key sectors: Technology, Consumer, Service, and Healthcare. The Permira funds have a long track record of investing in tech, having invested US $18.7 million in 67 companies in enterprise cloud adoption, SaaS and fintech. Permira employs more than 350 people in 15 offices throughout Europe, North America and Asia.
Teraco Data Environments
Teraco is Africa’s largest interconnected data center hub, offering carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data centres. Teraco is the first to provide highly resilient, vendor-neutral data environments for sub-Saharan Africa. This brings global content closer the digital edge. Teraco is a key component of the African Internets backbone. With its network-dense ecosystems and world-class data center infrastructure, Teraco is vital to modern enterprises’ digital transformation strategy. Teraco’s ever-expanding ecosystems take it beyond colocation and establish it as a marketplace for digital growth. Teraco is a home for digital businesses around the globe, allowing them to find new business partners, make strategic interconnection choices, and on-ramp to customers’ choice of cloud. Teraco, a global expert organization that is focused on data center technology and infrastructure has been purpose-built and managed to global best practices. The Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town facilities offer clients secure, cost effective, sustainable, scalable, and resilient data center services. Teraco Data Environments can be found at teraco.co.za.
Digital Realty
Digital Realty provides a full range of interconnection, colocation, and data center solutions to support the world’s top enterprises and service providers. PlatformDIGITAL, the company’s global data center platform, offers customers a solid foundation and proven Pervasive Database Architecture (PDx), solution methodology for scaling digital businesses and efficiently managing data gravity issues. Digital Realty’s global data center footprint allows customers to access the connected communities that are important to them, with more than 280 facilities located in 48 metros in 24 countries across six continents. Visit this page for more information digitalrealty.comFollow us on LinkedInAnd Twitter.
