Investment fund Stonepeak has invested $200 million into Guam telecoms firm TeleGuam Holdings (GTA).
The funding was announced in late December and closed earlier this month. Huntsman Family Investments and its affiliates (HFI) will continue to be the majority owner of GTA and operate the company.
GTA said it will use the investment to develop additional cable landing stations (CLS) and data center capacity, as well as accelerate the build-out of its fiber network on the island.
“When we acquired GTA in 2017, we backed a visionary management team, led by Roland Certeza and Joseph Shinohara, to develop the digital ecosystem on Guam. Despite the challenges of Covid and Typhoon Mawar, our GTA team has been steadfast in working towards that goal,” Paul Huntsman, chairman of GTA and president and CEO of Huntsman Family Investments, said.
“Today, we are honored to partner with a world-class investor, Stonepeak, for the next stage of GTA’s growth, and we are looking forward to leveraging their expertise. We are thankful to our GTA team and local investor partners for helping us get to this point.”
Founded in 1950, GTA has several landing stations and data centers on the island. GTA broke ground on a new CLS and data center in Tamuning on the north of the island in October 2022.
The new Alupang data center will span two stories, offering 4MW of capacity across 31,000 sq ft (2,875 sqm). Last year, the company was also granted approval for a new CLS in Inalåhan on the southeast of the island.
Stonepeak’s digital infrastructure investments include APAC operator Digital Edge, LATAM firm Cirion, and North American operators CoreSite and Cologix. It also has investments in a number of tower firms.
Andrew Thomas, senior managing director at Stonepeak, added: “Given Guam’s increasing importance as a strategic hub for transpacific subsea cables, we believe there will be strong demand for additional landing stations and colocation capacity in the years to come.”
He continued: “In our view, GTA is well positioned to meet that demand with its platform of landing stations and data center facilities spanning the island, interconnected through a dense fiber network. We look forward to partnering with HFI and the GTA management team to continue to grow the company.”
Lazard is serving as financial advisor to HFI and GTA. Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP is serving as legal counsel to HFI and GTA, and Sidley Austin LLP is serving as legal counsel to Stonepeak.
As part of this transaction, Benjamin Wu, partner at Huntsman Family Investments, will assume the role of CEO of Forager Holdings, the parent company of GTA.
Wu said: “With this investment, we intend to fortify our fiber network, accelerate our data center development, and expand our regional presence to ensure that our customers can rely on us for responsive service.
"We believe that with the support of Stonepeak, we will develop Guam as a preferred gateway between the United States and our allies in Asia, leading to stronger economic and geopolitical ties."
US territory Guam is currently the landing point for 11 subsea cables, and another four are due to reach the island in the coming years. As well as GTA, Tata operates one CLS on the island, and AT&T has two.
