CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited has completed the acquisition of the remaining floors of the CITIC Telecom Tower in Hong Kong.

The purchase cost the company approximately HKD850 million (US$109.6M), and the additional floors will be developed by wholly-owned subsidiary CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited (CITIC Telecom CPC), which will expand the facility to capture opportunities in the cloud computing and data center markets.

Under old management

The 24-storey CITIC Telecom Tower was completed in 1977, and is located at Kwai Chung, an urban area in the New Territories. It houses the second Hong Kong Internet exchange (HKIX2), along with a large number of Tier-1 carriers.

“The acquisition of the remaining floors of CITIC Telecom Tower will bolster the development of our cloud data center business,” said Stephen Ho, CEO of CITIC Telecom CPC, noting that the company’s goal is to expand its network coverage and cloud data center, as well as to diversify in cloud computing services.

“We will strengthen our capabilities in the innovative information and communications arena including big data analytics, IOT, network functions virtualization (NFV) and software defined everything (SDX). We will also assist enterprise customers in broadening their global business presence through utilizing our world-class network facilities, solutions and services,” Ho added.

The completion of the deal will add 10 floors to CITIC’s data center footprint and increase the total number of racks within the 340,000 sq ft building to more than 4,000.

Construction of the first phase of expansion is set to commence immediately, with a scheduled completion date of 2018. The company says the first phase alone will double the scale of its cloud data center in the CITIC Telecom Tower.

Earlier this year, CITIC Telecom International CPC acquired the telecommunication business of Netherlands-based Linx Telecommunications, extending its footprint to Central Asia and Eastern European markets.