Digital Realty Trust: Digital Realty forms JW with Pembani Remgro to acquire Nigeria's Medallion Data Centres

Oct 27, 2021 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji

Digital Realty has announced that it has formed a joint venture with Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund to acquire Medallion Data Centres. Medallion is Nigeria’s top interconnection and colocation provider. The company operates two data centers in the country. One of the facilities is in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, and the other one in Lagos, the most populous urban metro in Africa with a population of approximately 15 million people.

Medallion’s Lagos facility is the top connectivity hub in West Africa. It has more than 70 carriers and internet service providers. It also has more than 80 percent of the public peering traffic on the Nigerian Internet Exchange. The JV will also acquire land next to Medallion’s Lagos facility as part of the deal between the companies. Medallion’s management team will continue leading the Medallion business.

In other news, Digital Realty and Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund have been in partnership with Jenya’s iColo since 2019. iColo has now revealed its plans for expansion into Mozambique. It will develop a data center in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Besides, there were also expansions at iColo’s Nairobi and Mombasa campuses.

Digital Realty's Press Release on October 25, 2021

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions and Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund announced today the formation of a joint venture to acquire Medallion Data Centres, Nigeria's leading colocation and interconnection provider.

Medallion operates two data centers, one in Lagos, the most populous urban metropolitan area in Africa with approximately 15 million people, and one in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.  Medallion's Lagos data center is the leading connectivity hub in Western Africa with over 70 carriers and internet service providers, over 80% of the public peering traffic on the Nigerian Internet Exchange, and a peering point for all subsea cables currently operating in Nigeria with plans to serve as a peering point for the nine new subsea cables scheduled to be in operation in Lagos by 2023.

With a population of over 200 million, Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and the seventh most populous in the world.  Its GDP is the largest in Africa and was the 26th largest globally in 2019.  With a large and young population, a growing and diversifying economy as well as a maturing regulatory environment, Nigeria has experienced strong economic growth in recent years.

As part of the transaction, the joint venture is also acquiring a land parcel adjacent to the Lagos data center to provide near-term expansion capacity.  Medallion's management team, led by CEO and co-founder Ike Nnamani, will continue to lead the business.

Separately, Digital Realty and Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund have successfully partnered with Kenyan data center operator iColo since 2019, and iColo announced today that it will enter Mozambique through the development of its first data center in the country, located in the capital and port city of Maputo.

The iColo campus in Mombasa was recently expanded to deliver an additional 1.6 megawatts of power and 12,900 square feet of capacity for new and existing customers, along with the new subsea cable landing equipment.  In addition, iColo has expanded its Nairobi campus with the acquisition of an additional 215,000 square feet of land that will support 14 megawatts of future data center capacity.

Africa is evolving into a major interconnection hub for data-driven businesses that require a scalable, future-proof platform to facilitate global hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure.  The deployment of PlatformDIGITAL®, Digital Realty's market-leading global data center platform, across Africa will enable multinational and local businesses to rapidly scale their digital transformations by deploying critical infrastructure with a leading global data center provider at the heart of a growing connected data community in the region. 

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