SWI Group, the alternative investment platform created in March from Stoneweg Group and Icona Capital, has announced its plans to build its first data centre in the UK.
SWI Group also announced the rebranding of the holding group for its five hyperscale data centres into AiOnX. AiOnX was previously known as the Stoneweg Icona data centre fund (IDC).
The UK site, located at Sutton-in-the-Isle, between Cambridge and Peterborough, will be scaled up to a final capacity of 330 megawatts (MW).
The Cambridgeshire site will target the UK’s cluster of global technology operators located in the so-called “Golden Triangle” between Cambridge, Oxford and London.
It will be “among the biggest data centres in the UK”, according to a July 2 announcement by Stoneweg EBT Management, the Trustee-Manager of Stoneweg European Business Trust.
The upcoming data centre on the UK site joins four other Tier I hyperscale data centres under the AiOnX banner in Ireland, Denmark, Spain and Italy. As announced on June 24, the four data centre sites span 225ha in total.
The development plan of the five assets aims at creating a 2 gigawatt (GW) total capacity, for an investment of over EUR20 billion.
SWI Group chairman and co-CEO Max-Hervé George says: “When we first got involved with data centres six years ago, we could see the demand for computing was going to grow dramatically, but the explosion in the growth of AI has taken even us by surprise.”
SWI Group is the sposnor of Singapore-listed Stoneweg Europe Stapled Trust (SERT), formerly a REIT known as Cromwell European REIT.
See also: SERT’s maiden foray into data centre fund has ‘exciting growth potential’: RHB
SERT announced on June 24 that it had invested EUR50 million ($74.4 million) into IDC, now AiOnX.
According to a July 2 announcement, SERT’s investment into AiOnX was completed at an “attractive” entry price prior to the addition of the UK site, “further enhancing embedded value”. “This strategic move provides SERT with early exposure to a rare, high-growth hyperscale platform, positioning SERT to capture development-led returns beyond traditional stabilised acquisitions.”
SERT was renamed on Jan 2 after London- and Luxembourg-based alternative investment group Icona Capital and Geneva-headquartered real estate investment group Stoneweg paid EUR280 million to take over a 27.9% stake in the REIT.
SERT was converted into a trust from its former REIT structure earlier this year. Last month, units in Stoneweg European Business Trust were stapled to units of Stoneweg European REIT and began trading on the Singapore Exchange on June 16.
SWI Group currently has over EUR10 billion of assets under management and more than 350 employees across 26 offices across the world.
As at 3.09pm, stapled securities in SERT are trading EUR0.01 higher, or 0.66%, at EUR1.53.
