Azrieli Expands Data Centre Business With London Deal
Israel’s Azrieli Group is expanding its data centre business with a deal in London. The company is buying an unnamed data centre operator and a piece of land adjacent to the facility. Both parcels offer potential for future construction and development. The company is already active in the data centre market, accounting for 12% of its total business. Last year, it bought a stake in Norway’s Green Mountain AS for NIS 2.8 billion, and it’s hoping to grow the data centre business in Europe.
The acquisition comes as part of a larger expansion plan for Azrieli, which currently operates 24MW of capacity. It’s aiming to expand its data centre capacity to 49MW by the end of next year. Azrieli plans to raise new debt to finance the acquisition of Green Mountain, with up to 50% of the financing coming from an additional loan. The Tel Aviv-based company traditionally focused on office space, senior housing and shopping malls in Israel. However, in 2019, it decided to enter the global data centre market by purchasing a 20 percent stake in Dallas-based Compass Datacenters.
The latest expansion in the data centre industry follows an increasing trend of international investment. As the world’s data requirements grow, Africa will continue to become a major hub for companies like Google. The company recently announced plans to build a data centre in South Africa. The new facility will feature 15,000 square metres and additional power of 20MW. The completion date of the project is expected in 2023. While Africa has far fewer data centres than the United States and Europe, South Africa presents a huge opportunity for growth.
The data center industry in Israel is growing, as more companies move their operations abroad. Ariel Properties is one of Israel’s largest veterans groups, and offers outsourced property management and general real estate solutions. The company also includes Property and Building Corp., one of Israel’s oldest construction companies, and a subsidiary of the IDB Group. Both companies offer high-quality residential neighborhoods in major cities worldwide.
As the company grows in Europe, it will also expand its services in the Middle East. The deal is expected to add more than 100 new jobs to the company’s staff. The London project will also enable the company to increase its reach in the United Kingdom. Its London data centre will provide up to 1,500 employees with access to cloud computing services. The company is also aiming to increase the number of data center operators in the UK.
In the Middle East, the city’s temperatures are moderated by a mild Mediterranean climate. It averages 30.6 degC in August and just under twenty-one degrees in January. The warmest month is August, with average temperatures between thirty-five and twenty-four degrees Celsius. The Mediterranean Sea provides a high percentage of humidity, and the city rarely experiences lower temperatures than twenty degrees.