Global Switch, a London-based data company, has sold a 49% stake to Elegant Jubilee, a consortium of Chinese investors, for £2.4bn.
The firm, which owns, operates and develops large scale, carrier and cloud neutral data centres throughout Europe and Asia-Pacific, says the strategic investment will support its expansion.
Aldersgate Investments Limited, the current shareholder company owned by the Reuben brothers, will now jointly control the company alongside Elegant Jubilee.
Li Qiang, a telecommunications and internet markets entrepreneur and assembler of the consortium, commented on the deal: “We are tremendously excited to be investing in Global Switch, which has grown to become one of the world’s leading data centre companies. We believe that bringing together the high quality data centres and operational excellence of Global Switch with the rapidly growing demand from Chinese customers creates a perfect match that will deliver significant future growth opportunities.”
The lead investor and sponsor of the Elegant Jubilee is Jiangsu Sha Steel Group, a Chinese steel making company. Other investors include AVIC Trust, Essence Financial and Ping An Group.
“On behalf of the investing consortium, we are delighted to be partnering with the Reuben Brothers and the Global Switch management team to grow the business strategically and to take it to the next stage of its profitable development,” Qiang added.
John Corcoran, CEO of Global Switch, said: “This investment will continue to open up opportunities for Global Switch to become the data centre provider of choice for new customers from across the globe, and especially Chinese companies growing in Asia and Europe and Western companies growing in China.”