Investment management firm Digital Transformation Capital Partners (DTCP) has acquired a stake in German data center firm Maincubes.
Maincubes said this week that DTCP has become a new strategic partner and investor, taking over shares in company from the previous main shareholder Art-Invest Real Estate. Terms of the deal were not shared, but Art-Invest previously owned around 75 percent of the company, with management owning the rest.
Maincubes said both shareholders now jointly hold the majority stake in the company and intend to invest more than €1 billion ($999.3m) in the growth of Maincubes over the next few years.
"We are delighted to welcome DTCP, a partner that fits perfectly with the values of Maincubes and our long-standing investor Art-Invest Real Estate," said Oliver Menzel, CEO and founder of Maincubes. “Developing data centers ῾made in Germany᾽ into a sustainable European success story is our top priority. As an experienced infrastructure investor, DTCP can support us in the further development of the corporate structure and organization as well as in sustainable financing and raising capital for our growth plans.”
Earlier this month, DTCP announced the second closing of its Digital Infrastructure Vehicle II (DIV II). At the same time, it said it had recently invested in an unidentified ‘European data center business,’ which it expected to be completed shortly.
DTCP’s other investments include Dutch tower company Cellnex NL, CellNex’s Swiss operations, CloudReach, Community Fibre, and Keepler.
Waldemar Maurer, partner at DTCP, said: “We are pleased to support Oliver and his team with our operational expertise and to have an experienced real estate investor and developer at our side in Art-Invest. The European data center market is currently dominated by providers from the USA and Asia, and we see great potential for Maincubes to establish itself as a leading European data center operator.”
Vicente Vento, founder and CEO of DTCP, added: "We believe that the demand for computing and storage capacities will continue to increase and that both private and public customers will continue to migrate to more modern, cost-effective, and flexible systems. This makes Maincubes an ideal asset for our recently launched Digital Infrastructure Vehicle.”
Founded in 2012 and part of German construction conglomerate Zech Group via its Art-Invest fund, Maincubes currently operates the FRA01 data center in Frankfurt, and another in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. In 2015, Keppel DC REIT acquired a then yet-to-be constructed Maincubes data center in Offenbach, outside Frankfurt.
It broke ground on a second Frankfurt facility in July. Earlier this year the company announced plans for a third facility in Frankfurt and its first in Berlin.
Markus Wiedenmann, CEO at Art-Invest Real Estate, said: “We are very pleased that in DTCP we have been able to gain an ideal partner for the further growth of Maincubes. With its focus on digital infrastructure and its capital strength, DTCP enables the company to develop together into a leading European data center operator.”
