Sonda seeks investors for its datacenter business

Chile's Sonda hired Santander to advise on the creation of a competitive process to evaluate strategic alternatives for the datacenter colocation business, according to a statement sent to Santiago’s stock exchange.

Options include strategic associations, joint ventures, or 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; to 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.

Details about the affected datacenters were not provided, but the operation relates specifically to colocation. “Colocation assets require capital allocation that goes beyond our core strategy, which is focused on high value-added services and solutions,” added Orlandini.

“In addition, there are companies that are only in the colocation business, while Sonda seeks to be in all layers of services, and in this sense, we have seen interest in the market in this type of association, with attractive multiples, with which it makes even more sense to explore alternatives that can generate value,” he said.

Sonda has the Teatinos, Quilicura and Kudos facilities in Chile, with US$200mn Tier-IV certified Kudos being the newest, launched in 2020. The 4,000m2 facility involved four phases and 12MW.

In July 2022, Sonda announced investments of US$340mn through 2024 for its regional operations and expansion to the US. The company's 2022-24 plan focuses on the smart city and mobility business, cloud and datacenters in Brazil and North America.

In particular, Orlandini expects faster time-to-market and datacenter network expansion for clients with regional operations. "At Sonda we will continue to offer the best solutions on the market and we hope that the possible strategic alliance will help us expand the offer of services on the infrastructure hosted at the different sites in the region," he added.

Latest financial data shows consolidated revenues of US$787mn and Ebitda of US$85.9mn from January to September 2022, up 20.6% and 6.2% year-on-year.

Contracts worth US$1.23bn were closed, up 34.7%. Contract values grew 8.3% in the Southern Cone, 42.2% in the Andean region, 73.9% in North America and 75% in Brazil. New business opportunities reached US$4.03bn.