The global interconnection and data center company Equinix, Inc has acquired the India operations of GPX Global Systems, Inc. at USD 161 million in an all-cash transaction. 

The company has said that this would include two data center campuses in Mumbai, which will hold more than 200 local companies and international brands which will include cloud service providers CSPs, content delivery network (CDN) providers, 130 internet service providers (ISPs) all local carriers and four network exchanges.  

Furthermore, subjected to customary closing conditions which will include regulatory approval, the acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.

Across 26 countries and 56 metros, Platform Equinix has more than 210 data centers and has been offering interconnection and data center services for over 9.5k businesses. Today, this company operates about 46 IBX data centers across Asia-Pacific - 13 metros in China, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Osaka, Tokyo and Seoul. 

While according to industry experts, this deal is expected to be the emergence of data centers in the form of investment and asset class for both service providers and investors. 

“Data center industry has quickly become a favored asset class attracting investments across the whole spectrum of private equity investors, infrastructure funds, real estate funds along with strategic players looking for consolidation opportunities,” said Rachit Mohan, India head, Data Center, JLL. “India is riding this wave in the forefront, and is expected to attract significant investments in the time to come,” he added..

Also, McKinsey has projected that about USD 355-235 billion would be contributed by the core digital sectors in India - which includes digital communication services and IT - will be doubling its size by the year 2025.