Department store group El Corte Inglés has reportedly acquired a majority stake in Kio’s Spanish unit.

Expansión reports the company has purchased the remaining 50 percent of Kio Networks Spain, which was owned by Mexico’s Kio, adding to its existing 50 percent stake.

The deal reportedly closed this week, but the companies are yet to officially announce the news. Terms of the deal are unclear at the moment.

Kio España currently operates one Spanish data center in Murcia, located on the Espinardo University Campus. Launched in 2014 in partnership with El Corte Inglés, the facility at Santiago Navarro Street, No 8 spans 172 sqm (1,850 sq ft) and 193kW across a single data hall.

Kio is set to launch a new data center in Paterna, Valencia, at the end of the year. Originally announced in September 2022, the company broke ground on the 1,000 sqm (10,760 sq ft) facility last year.

Founded in 1940, El Corte Inglés (The English Court) is one of the largest department store groups in Europe. Privately owned, the firm is looking to diversify its revenue sources.

The move is an about-face for El Corte Inglés, which was previously reportedly to be looking to divest its stake in Kio España. Reports surfaced in 2020 that the company had asked BBVA to coordinate the sale of Kio Spain as it looked to offload non-strategic assets.

Founded in 2002 and owned by I Squared Capital since 2021, Kio operates 20 data centers in Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Colombia. The company’s 13 core data centers offer a combined 26MW of IT capacity.

Kio previously had two facilities in the US, but sold them to Zayo in 2017; both are now operated by DataBank.

A version of this story appeared on our Spanish edition.