NEW DELHI: Digital infrastructure company Equinix Tuesday said it intends to expand into West Africa with the acquisition of MainOne, a West African data center and connectivity solutions provider having a presence in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
Equinix is looking to acquire the West African company at an enterprise value of $320 million and the deal is “expected to close Q1 of 2022, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions including the requisite regulatory approvals”, according to an official statement.
This marks Equinix’s first step in its “long-term strategy to become a leading African carrier neutral digital infrastructure company”, the company highlighted in the statement.
The deal, upon closing, would enable the Redwood City, California-based company to access MainOne’s three operational data centers, an extensive submarine network extending 7,000 kilometers from Portugal to Lagos, Accra, and along the west African coast, with landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, as well as a terrestrial fiber network of nearly 1,200 kilometers with 65 points-of-presence (PoPs).
Furthermore, MainOne is constructing an additional data center facility which is expected to open in Q1 2022, coinciding with the closing of the transaction.
“The acquisition of MainOne will represent a critical point of entry for Platform Equinix into the expansive and rapidly growing African market… MainOne’s infrastructure, customer relationships, partner ecosystem and operating capability will extend the reach of Platform Equinix and bolster opportunities for customers in Africa and throughout the world,” said Charles Meyers, President and CEO, Equinix.
The partnership will be hosted on Tanla’s cloud-based ‘Wisely’ platform, co-developed with Microsoft, and is expected to help Vodafone Idea strengthen its position in the global enterprise market.
Globally, Equinix has 237 data centers across 65 metros and 27 countries, providing data center and interconnection services for over 10,000 of the world’s leading businesses, including more than 50% of Fortune 500 companies.Under terms of the deal, MainOne CEO and the management team will continue to serve in their respective capacities.
MainOne serves more than 800 business-to-business (B2B) customers, that include international technology companies, social media companies, global telecoms operators, amongst others.
It has an employee headcount of 500, and its facilities generate about $60 million annualized revenue with a purchase multiple of approximately 14x EBITDA.
“Equinix will accelerate our long-term vision to grow digital infrastructure investments across Africa… With similar values and culture to what we have jointly built in twelve years, Equinix is the preferred partner for our growth journey,” said Funke Opeke, Founder and CEO, MainOne.
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