Infratil and Legal & General Capital have increased their equity investment in Kao Data to lead the next phase of platform growth across the United Kingdom.
London, United Kingdom, October 5th, 2023 – Kao Data, the specialist developer and operator of high-performance data centres for enterprise, cloud, HPC and AI, has announced that leading infrastructure investment firm, Infratil and Legal & General Capital, the alternative asset platform of Legal & General Group, have increased their equity stakes in Kao Data. Infratil will now hold a majority stake of 53%, Legal & General Capital will hold 32%, and Goldacre NOÉ Group, Kao Data’s founding investors, will hold 15%.
Since 2021, Infratil Ltd and Legal & General Capital have together invested in Kao Data, growing the company from a single site data centre developer/operator, to a multi-site platform. The new shareholdings will provide streamlined ownership and additional funding for Kao Data’s further growth – accelerating its plans to scale across the United Kingdom and underpinning its mission to provide customers across the region with world-class and sustainable, high performance data centre infrastructure.
“Increasing our shareholding in Kao Data is in line with our strategy of investing in ’ideas that matter’ and continues our active support to scale the platform through contributing our extensive data centre experience. With the expanding presence of artificial intelligence and its transformative impact on key technological and digital thematics at a global scale, increasing Infratil’s Kao Data stake demonstrates our confidence in the sector’s prospects.” said Vincent Gerritsen, Head of UK & Europe for Morrison & Co, Infratil’s manager.
“Society’s digital infrastructure needs will only continue to increase, and meeting these needs will unlock productivity, innovation, and economic growth locally and internationally. Legal & General are enthusiastic to support this as an active shareholder of Kao Data on its continuing exciting growth journey, having successfully grown from a single site since investment to now four sites.” said Matteo Colombo, Managing Director of Strategic Private Capital Investments at Legal & General Capital.
“This moment marks an important next step in the Kao Data journey. With Infratil and L&G raising their stakes in the business, we are well-positioned for the growth opportunities presented by the data centre market, including the exploration of opportunities across Europe,” said David Bloom, Partner, Goldacre NOÉ Group and Chairman, Kao Data. “The founder investors had a clear vision for this business, and their continued presence as shareholders gives confidence about our ability to realise the potential of Kao Data.”
“Technologies such as GPU-powered Generative AI and high-performance computing are driving transformative change across the sector, and it’s vital we continue to build-out the Kao Data platform to the highest standards of performance, energy efficiency and sustainability, while retaining our position as one of the world’s leading data centre providers for advanced computing,” said Spencer Lamb, Chief Commercial Officer, Kao Data. “With our new capital structure and the ongoing support of our large, institutional investors, we believe Kao Data is perfectly placed to underpin the next wave of hyperscale and artificial intelligence innovation, during a time of exponential growth in digital infrastructure.”