Key Points
- Asterion Industrial Partners and Telefonica sold Spanish data center operator Nabiax to Aermont Capital.
- Nabiax includes two data centers in Madrid and one in Barcelona, with a total installed power of 35 MW.
- The deal’s valuation was estimated at around 1 billion euros, though financial terms were undisclosed.
- AI growth has boosted demand for data centers; Blackstone, Amazon, and Microsoft plan to invest billions in Spain’s infrastructure.
Spanish investment fund Asterion Industrial Partners and telecommunications giant Telefonica announced the sale of their joint venture Nabiax, a prominent Spanish data center operator, to European asset manager Aermont Capital. The acquisition, disclosed in a joint statement on Monday, includes Nabiax’s two data centers in Madrid and one in Barcelona, with a combined installed power capacity of 35 Megawatts. Asterion holds an 80% stake in Nabiax, while Telefonica retains the remaining 20%.
The exact financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but earlier reports suggested Nabiax’s valuation was approximately 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion). This sale reflects the strong demand for data centers in Europe, especially driven by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) boom, which has increased demand for robust data infrastructure. With the rapid advancement of AI applications and digital transformation, data centers are becoming essential for supporting complex computational needs and extensive data storage.
Spain has recently emerged as a significant player in the European data center market, attracting substantial investment from major international firms. Global private equity company Blackstone and tech giants Amazon and Microsoft plan to invest billions of euros into Spain’s data center infrastructure. The country’s strategic location and renewable energy initiatives have made it an appealing option for data center expansions, which rely heavily on substantial energy resources.
Asterion Industrial Partners founded Nabiax in 2019 by acquiring 11 data centers from Telefonica in Spain and Latin America. Initially, The company focused on growing its footprint in Europe and Latin America. However, in 2022, Asterion sold its Latin American operations to British infrastructure fund Actis to concentrate its resources on its core European markets, particularly Spain, as demand for data centers continues to rise.
This sale of Nabiax represents a broader trend in the industry, where infrastructure investment funds are increasingly eyeing data centers as high-yielding assets in the digital age. The strong demand for data infrastructure will likely drive further consolidation and investments as data centers become integral to supporting AI, cloud computing, and other advanced digital services.
