Investment firm Carlyle is reportedly looking to sell its stake in Airtel’s Nxtra data center unit.

At the same time, the data center company has signed new renewable energy deals.

Carlyle to exit Nxtra investment?

Local press in India, including MoneyControl, report Carlyle plans to sell its entire 24 percent stake in Nxtra.

However, ‘people aware of the development’ said a formal sale process is “still some time away.”

“There is a strong interest in the data centers space, and they have been receiving some inbound requests for their stake in Nxtra. The sale could easily fetch Carlyle at least 3x (triple) the amount it invested as the asset has grown tremendously well in the last few years, and the relation with Airtel and the enterprise customers that Airtel can draw through its telco relationships are a competitive advantage for the platform,” a source told the publication.

The companies involved didn’t provide comment to MoneyControl – a publication ultimately owned by the same group as Indian telco Reliance Jio.

Nxtra currently operates 12 data centers in India, as well as 120 Edge facilities or Points-of-Presence.

The company is jointly owned by Indian telco Airtel and Carlyle, with the latter set to take a 25 percent stake in 2020 for around $235 million. The deal, eventually for 24 percent of Nxtra, closed in 2022.

Airtel recently launched an African Nxtra unit, with plans to develop a 34MW data center in Lagos, Nigeria. The company has said it operates 40 Edge locations across the continent.

Nxtra procures renewable energy

Meanwhile, Nxtra has signed new agreements in India to procure renewable energy.

The company this week announced it had signed a power-wheeling agreement with Ampln and Amplus Energy to procure an additional 140,208 MWh of renewable energy.

The 25-year deals will see AmpIn Energy and Amplus Energy set up solar and wind power plants of 48MWdc and 24.3MW respectively for Nxtra’s data centers in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Odisha.

In Tamil Nadu, Amplus Energy will set up a 24.3MW wind and 28MW DC solar farm. In Uttar Pradesh, AmpIn Energy will set up a 12MW DC solar farm; in Odisha, the company will set up an 8 MW DC solar site.

Ashish Arora, Nxtra CEO, said: “These new partnerships reflect our commitment to lead India’s green data center space and fulfill our commitment to achieve Net Zero emission by 2031. The additional clean energy supply will increase our renewable energy share to approximately 70 percent in the overall energy mix for our core data centers. As we work towards building more capacity in coming years and gear up for Generative AI-powered loads, we are fully cognizant of our responsibility towards [the] environment and are prepared to mitigate the impact on climate.”