Migdal takes stake in global data centers co

• Author: Roi Weinberger
• Published date: 26 April 2022
• Publication title: Globes (Rishon LeZion, Israel)

"Globes" has learned that within the past few days Migdal has made its first equity investment in this area, participating in the $15 billion acquisition of CyrusOne

CyrusOne is a global REIT (real estate investment trust) specializing in the planning, construction and operation of data centers around the world, of which it has more than 50. The company provides IT infrastructure to about 1,000 customers, among them some 200 Fortune 1000 companies.

In the acquisition deal, led by KKR & Co. Inc. (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.) and Global Infrastructure Partners, Migdal's share is $75 million.

Erez Migdali, Chief Investment Officer at Migdal Insurance, explained to "Globes" that the investment in the REIT was part of a strategy of substantially expanding investment in infrastructure assets in the investment portfolios and the nostro account, and that Migdal has marked out two main types of infrastructure for investment: renewable energy, and digital infrastructure, which includes data centers and telecommunications infrastructure such as fiber optic cable.

"The development of data centers stems from the switch by enterprises and consumers from keeping data on their own premises to saving it on the cloud, and this is an area that will continue to develop in the coming years," Migdali says.

One of the great advantages of investment in data centers, he says, is that most of the customers are strong cloud services providers like Google, Microsoft and Amazon, and contracts with them are for long periods.

As mentioned, up to now Migdal has focused on credit deals in this area. For example, it financed a portfolio of data centers in Amsterdam and Dublin...