LatAm datacenter roundup: spin-offs, acquisitions and more

Latin America’s datacenter industry has seen a string of acquisition announcements, companies looking for investors and spin-offs.

More acquisition announcements are being lined up for the coming weeks, one source from the datacenter equipment sector and an executive at a major colocation company told BNamericas, on condition of anonymity.

According to one of these sources, the market continues to offer great opportunities, including for consolidation and in the niche of mid-sized and edge datacenters. 

In addition, more companies should announce internal restructuring and initiatives aimed at exploring opportunities in the segment.

Among the most recent moves, Brazilian infrastructure company Tivit spun off its datacenter business under the Takoda brand and announced a 1.2bn-real (US$234mn) five-year investment, mainly to upgrade and expand its sites.

The two companies will have the same shareholders, but different management and revenues. Takoda will be led by Eduardo Sodero, who was Tivit’s chief strategy officer. 

According to Tivit, the objective is to quintuple the size of the datacenter operation.

Takoda has four fully operational datacenters in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bogotá, and a workforce of 250 people.

It also has 65 customers, including federal oil company Petrobras, TIM and development bank BNDES, in addition to hyperscalers.

NEW INVESTORS

Also this month, Chilean systems integrator Sonda announced it is looking for investors for its datacenter business. The group hired Santander to advise in this process.

Options include strategic associations, JVs, and even the direct or indirect partial sale of Chilean, Colombian and Brazilian datacenter assets.

“It is important to mention that we are not leaving the datacenter business; on the contrary, we are looking for alternatives that help us strengthen it. Our goal is to add a new partner in facilities so that, together, we can boost the growth of the infrastructure business and allow Sonda to grow in the rest of the datacenter services,” CEO José Orlandini told BNamericas via email.

Meanwhile, Brazil's Odata already has a new partner. After announcing the acquisition of the company in December, Aligned Data Centers last week got clearance from Brazilian regulatory authorities to complete the deal. 

Backed by funds such as Macquarie and GIC, Aligned plans to invest US$1bn in Odata in the coming years.

And Brazilian telecom infrastructure company V.tal will this week open its second datacenter in Fortaleza, the edge-focused Big Lobster.