NGD’s mega-colocation campus in Wales acquired by Vantage Data Centers

Newport, Wales-based hyperscale datacentre operator Next Generation Data (NGD) has sold its supersized campus for an undisclosed sum, it has emerged.

The company is renowned for operating Europe’s largest datacentre campus, which spans close to one million square feet of space, and is used to meet the colocation requirements of enterprises, systems integrators and cloud service providers.

In terms of colocation capacity, the campus includes a total of 180MW of power, of which 72MW is already occupied and the remaining 108MW is categorised as “expansion capacity”.

The site has now been acquired by hyperscale colocation firm Vantage Data Centers, as part of a wider buy-and-build push by the operator to expand its European datacentre footprint.

The acquisition makes Wales the sixth European market in which Vantage operates, after its buyout of Luxembourg-based colocation firm Etix Everywhere in February. This year has also seen it acquire sites in Berlin, Frankfurt, Milan, Warsaw and Zurich.

News of its latest acquisition follows an announcement by Vantage in early July that it had secured an additional $3.5bn in funding from investment firm Colony Capital to accelerate its continued expansion across North America and Europe.

Sureel Choksi, president and CEO of Vantage Data Centers, said the acquisition of NGD is important for the firm in the context of its European expansion.

“The acceleration of digital transformation that continues to be at the forefront of our global economy emphasises the need for reliable datacentre capacity that can scale quickly to meet skyrocketing demand,” said Choksi.

“Vantage is excited to enter the UK market and is committed to growing around the world in locations that are most critical to our hyperscale and cloud customers.” 

The existing NGD management team will be remain in place post-acquisition, with its former CEO, Justin Jenkins, staying on to serve as chief operating officer of Vantage Europe and president of Vantage UK.

“The NGD team and I are elated to join Vantage to serve customers not only in the UK, but across Europe,” said Jenkins. “Together, we will accelerate our shared vision to become the pre-eminent hyperscale datacentre provider globally.”

Marc Ganzi, CEO of Vantage investment firm Colony Capital and Digital Colony, said the acquisition has come at time of particularly heightened demand for datacentre capacity.   

“As the world continues fighting this global pandemic and experiences a secular shift in enterprise cloud adoption, the rapid development of datacentres is more critical than ever to meet heightened customer demand,” he said. “Vantage Europe’s acquisition of NGD is a significant example of providing hyperscale capacity to an underserved market.”