ESR Group, which describes itself as the region’s largest real estate manager, has announced the first close of a fund meant for data centre investments, raising more than US$1 billion.
ESR Data Centre Fund 1, as the fund is called, drew investors ranging from sovereign wealth funds and pension funds.
ESR will raise a separate discretionary capital sleeve to co-invest into the fund which will likely close the balance of the fund at the hard cap of US$1.5 billion.
In addition, the partners have an upsize option of an additional equity commitment of US$1.5 billion, possibly bringing total investment capacity to as much as US$7.5 billion over time.
“APAC is the prime market for data centre development and investment in the new era of digitalisation,” says Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson, co-founders and co-CEOs of ESR.
“The substantial first close of our inaugural data centre fund marks a significant milestone for ESR as we continue to grow and scale our digital infrastructure business,” they add.
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According to ESR, its current data centre development portfolio comprises data centre projects primely located in major data centre clusters across Asia, including Hong Kong, Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, Mumbai and Singapore, delivering 300 megawatts IT load.
Amongst these projects is one in Osaka that will be developed into a multi-phase data centre campus with a development potential of up to 95 MW IT load to serve both hyperscalers and co-location operators in the rapidly growing Osaka market.
ESR is tapping the growing demand for data centre capacity in turned fuelled by growing data consumption by consumers and businesses alike.
