Pan-African firm Paratus has secured a new debt facility to fund its expansion plans.
Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company, and its fund manager, Ninety One, have committed a $31 million debt facility to Paratus to finance the expansion of its fiber and data center business over the next three years.
The funds will help finance the construction of a 10MW data center in Angola, as well as three new fiber routes connecting Walvis Bay-Johannesburg-Maputo, Brazzaville-Johannesburg-Maputo, and Luanda-Lusaka-Dar Es Salaam.
Ninety One acted as the mandated lead arranger of the transaction, mobilizing capital from two of its funds, EAIF and Ninety One Africa Credit Opportunities.
Sine Zulu, investment specialist at Ninety One, said: “This financing is a key demonstration of the growing demand for connectivity and data on the continent. EAIF’s structuring expertise and ability to mobilize private capital into digital infrastructure in emerging economies has enabled finance to flow where it is needed most.”
Paratus announced plans for a new Angolan data center in Luanda in June. The facility – set to be the country’s first Tier IV data center – will be constructed on a 30,000 sqm (323,000 sq ft) plot of land and have an IT capacity of more than 10MW across 2,000 racks.
Paratus Angola, previously known as ITA, currently operates two data centers on a campus in the Angolan capital. The first was launched in 2017 and has a capacity for 1,500 servers, the second of which launched in 2019 and can host up to 7,000 servers.
It is also from this campus that the company hosts one of its five teleports, and is working on a new ground station there as part of a deal with OneWeb.
Schalk Erasmus, Paratus CEO added: “Widening access to fiber and data centers in key African markets will progress development and inclusive growth. EAIF and Ninety One’s commitment sends the right signal to the rest of the market and reinforces our mission to support a more connected and technologically advanced Africa.”
PIDG is an infrastructure project developer and investor channeling private investment into sustainable infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa, and South and South-East Asia. Ninety One manages the EAIF for PIDG, which provides debt for infrastructure projects.
Previous investments include $20 million towards Axian Telecom in 2022, $10 million in tower firm Helios in 2014, and a number of renewable energy projects across the continent. Earlier this year EAIF provided a $170 million credit facility to Raxio.
Paratus Group operates four Tier III-quality data centers across southern Africa, located in Angola, Namibia, and Zambia. Earlier year, the company activated the Namibian branch of the Equiano Subsea Cable, for which it developed a cable landing station. The company also commenced construction of a new teleport in Pretoria, South Africa, earlier this year.
