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Rogers Selling Nine Data Centres to InfraRed
Rogers Communications has agreed to sell its nine non-core data centres located across Canada to InfraRed Capital Partners under a definitive agreement announced Thursday.
The price was not disclosed but The Globe and Mail reported that Rogers will receive about $200 million in proceeds, citing notes that National Bank of Canada Analyst Adam Shine and Bank of Montreal counterpart Tim Casey sent to clients.
According to Rogers and InfraRed, the data centres are located in key cities, but the sites’ exact locations were not disclosed. The facilities have a combined capacity of up to 49 megawatts and provide secure colocation, cloud, and managed services within a Canadian data-sovereignty framework.
Rogers will continue to sell data-centre services to InfraRed, a London-based subsidiary of Canadian insurance giant Sun Life.
InfraRed, a leading international mid-market infrastructure asset manager, oversees US$13 billion of equity capital worldwide.
“This investment represents an exciting opportunity for us to drive value in an established business, capitalizing on the rising demand for secure and reliable data centre services, within one of the most attractive segments of the Canadian digital-infrastructure market,” said InfraRed Partner Pilar Banegas.
“We will leverage our knowledge of the market and our deep data-centre experience, built from investments such as Nexspace, our European data-centre platform, to help realize its potential. Furthermore, we can also draw on our owner Sun Life’s significant presence in Canada to inform our approach.”
The deal is part of Rogers’ ongoing debt-reduction as the Toronto-based company seeks to remove $1 billion in liabilities from its books through the sale of non-core real estate assets. Other Canadian telecoms are looking to do likewise as they focus on their core businesses.
“The transaction does not include Rogers corporate data centres used for the company’s network and IT purposes,” said Rogers.
The deal is expected to close by year-end 2025, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals.