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Toronto-based telecom titan Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI-B-T) said it has an agreement to sell nine of its Rogers Business data centres to U.K.-based infrastructure investment manager InfraRed Capital Partners.
The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but Rogers indicated it intends to use proceeds to lower its debt. Locations or the sizes of the data centres were also not provided, but Data Centre Map says Rogers Business has five in Ontario, five in Alberta and one in Halifax.
In a release, InfraRed described the facilities as "Tier 2 and 3 data centres across key Canadian cities."
“This investment represents an exciting opportunity for us to drive value in an established business, capitalizing on the rising demand for secure and reliable data centre services, within one of the most attractive segments of the Canadian digital infrastructure market." Pilar Banegas, a partner at InfraRed, said in an announcement Thursday morning.
The business is "well-positioned to meet the evolving demands of customers with up to 49 (megawatts) of capacity and a range of secure colocation, cloud, and managed services," InfraRed said.
Rogers will continue to sell data centre services on behalf of InfraRed and provide network connectivity to the data centres, the company said. The company’s corporate data centres, which are utilized for the company’s network and IT, are not included in the deal.
Rogers Business provides business clients with telecommunications and data centre services, such as cloud computing and colocation. The Rogers branch has 12 data centres across Canada, its website says.
InfraRed, which is a part of Canadian financial services company Sun Life, holds US$13 billion in equity under management with over 240 assets managed in 18 countries.
The transaction is expected to complete by the end of the year, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.
Rogers aiming to pay off debts
Rogers expressed its interest in selling off data centres early in 2024, to lighten the financial burdens of acquiring former competitor Shaw in a $26-billion transaction which was completed in April 2023.
The company was seeking to raise $1 billion primarily from selling its real estate.
As of June 30, Rogers’ debt leverage ratio was 3.6x. To pay back some of that debt, the company entered into a definitive agreement with funds managed by Blackstone for a US$4.85-billion equity investment, which closed in June.
Rogers said in its Q2 financial report it used approximately $700 million during the quarter to repay amounts outstanding under its term loan facility.
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