Investment firm Ardian has completed the acquisition of European data center firm Verne.

The company this week said it had completed the acquisition of the entire share capital of Verne (formerly Verne Global) from UK infrastructure firm Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9).

Ardian said it will support the expansion of Verne with up to $1.2bn committed investment through equity and debt to “deliver an ambitious growth plan” for Northern Europe.

Ardian said it plans to multiply Verne’s existing sold capacity of 29MW for 2023 by “close to four times” in the medium term. This will include expanding existing sites and entering new locations with a focus on Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway, as well as potential opportunities across the rest of Northern Europe.

“With this new investment, the infrastructure team continues to demonstrate its capacity to seize unique and value accretive opportunities in the European market to deploy our new flagship infrastructure fund,” said Juan Angoitia and Benoit Gaillochet, co-heads of infrastructure Europe, Ardian.

Dominic Ward, Verne CEO, added: “This is an exciting day for Verne as we become part of the Ardian platform. We have ambitious plans to continue growing the company and delivering sustainable data center solutions. We want to enable organizations to cost-effectively scale their digital infrastructure while reducing their environmental impact. We are hugely excited to be working with Ardian to help power our future.”

Triple Point-owned D9 announced it was selling Verne to Ardian in November 2023. The terms of the sale were not disclosed – though reports suggest £465 million ($575m).

D9 bought Verne for £231 million in 2021 ($320m at the time). The company operates a 24MW data center campus on a former NATO site near Keflavik, Iceland, offering colocation and high-performance computing services. D9 has since acquired and merged Finnish data center firm Ficolo and London’s Volta Data Centres into the Verne brand.

Amid growing debt and a dropping share price, D9 initially said that it would sell a minority stake in Verne, but shareholders pushed for a total sale.

“Having identified the company through our systemic matrix sourcing approach, looking through both a digital infrastructure and country-specific lens, we identified Verne as a truly green data center compared with its peers globally,” said Gonzague Bautry, managing director – digital infrastructure, Ardian. “Ardian will support Verne’s top-tier management team to match the incredible and fascinating customer AI-driven demand.”

D9 is in the process of winding down and will be selling off its other assets. As well as Verne, D9’s investments include subsea cable firm Aqua Comms, UK terrestrial television and radio broadcasting network Arqiva, Irish broadband firm Elio (previously Host Ireland), a stake in the EMIC-1 cable linking southern Europe to India, and the SeaEdge UK1 data center & cable landing station in the UK.