RIL: Reliance ties up with Brookfield Infra-Digital Realty, will have 33.33% stake in data center business.

Reliance Industries has announced that it is entering into an agreement with Brookfield Infrastructure and Digital Realty to invest in special purpose vehicles (SPVs) set up with the objective of developing data centers in India. Under the deal, RIL will hold 33.33 per cent stake in each of the Indian SPVs and will be an equal partner, the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges.

Digital Realty operates over 300 data centers in 27 countries

Digital Realty provides cloud and carrier neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions globally with over 300 data centers in 27 countries. The company has a joint venture (JV) with Brookfield Infrastructure. Brookfield Infrastructure develops high quality, highly connected, scalable data centers for enterprises and digital services companies in India. RIL will now become an equal partner in the said joint venture, which will be branded as ‘Digital Connexion: A Brookfield, Jio and Digital Realty Company’.

Regulatory approval for the deal is expected to be completed in three months.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas acted as legal advisor to the partnership and Deloitte, Haskins & Sells LLP acted as accounting and tax due diligence advisors to RIL. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in about three months, the company said.

The joint venture is currently developing data centers in Chennai and Mumbai.

RIL said, “The joint venture is currently developing data centers in Chennai and Mumbai. Its first 20 MW greenfield data center (MAA 100) in a 100 MW complex at Chennai is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. It also recently announced the acquisition of 2.15 MV acres of land in Mumbai to build a 40 MW data centre.” According to the company “this joint venture will be fully capable of serving global and local enterprises, SMBs and vibrant startups of India for their cloud and colocation needs.”

CEO of Jio Platforms Limited said – We are excited to partner with Digital Realty

“We are excited to partner with Digital Realty, one of the most innovative data center companies globally, and Brookfield, our existing and trusted partner. The partnership will help us serve our enterprise and SMB customers with state-of-the-art, plug-and-play solutions delivered from the cloud and lead their digital transformation and make them more competitive and efficient,” said Kiran Thomas, CEO, Jio Platforms Ltd. Kiran Thomas has also thanked the Government of India for granting infrastructure status to data centers and creating a conducive ecosystem for their development and operations. And said that this deal is important for the country to become a trillion dollar digital economy by 2025. Data center capacity in India is expected to grow manifold in the next few years.

Brookfield’s India head said – Reliance’s expertise will benefit

“We are delighted to expand our existing partnership with Reliance and add their deep expertise in the Indian telecom, technology and data landscape to the platform,” said Arpit Agarwal, Head of Infrastructure India and Middle East, Brookfield. “This joint venture brings together three global leaders in digital infrastructure to accelerate Digital India by developing, owning and operating institutional quality carrier and cloud neutral data centers across India,” said Serene Nah, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, Digital Realty.