The Adani Group is set to acquire K Raheja Corp’s two land parcels spread over 92 acres in Navi Mumbai’s Airoli locality for around Rs 1,500 crore, said persons with direct knowledge of the development.
Both the land parcels will be transferred to AdaniConneX, the data center joint venture between Adani Enterprises and US-based global hyperscale data center provider EdgeConneX.
“Most processes and documentation related to the deals have been almost finalized and the transactions are likely to be concluded in the next few weeks,” said one of the persons cited above.
In February 2021, Adani Group’s flagship company Adani Enterprises entered into a 50:50 joint venture with EdgeConneX to develop and operate data centers throughout India. The joint venture will focus on building a network of hyperscale data centers across the country, starting with Chennai, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Vizag and Hyderabad markets.
The alliance is planning to develop 1 GW of data center capacity over the next decade.
Last week, Adani Power announced that it will seek shareholders’ approval for a proposed related-party transaction worth up to Rs 5,000 crore with AdaniConnex during its upcoming annual general meeting on July 27.
The transaction involves Adani Power selling its Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and subsidiaries, in which ownership and leasehold rights in land parcels have been procured, to its related party AdaniConnex.
AdaniConnex is an indirect associate company of Adani Power and the aggregate value of the transaction to be entered in the current financial year is up to Rs 5,000 crore.
Adani Power, in its AGM notice, has explained that it can facilitate new infrastructure development facilities. With this, the company can monetise experience and expertise, provide power solutions and related infrastructure to industrial power consumption centres that are set up on such land like IT/ITES parks, data centres and townships, especially where power consumption requirements are likely to be significant.
Both the land parcels that K Raheja Corp had bought earlier from US-based specialty chemicals company Cabot Corporation and Mafatlal Group company Standard Industries are adjacent to each other and can be amalgamated for any proposed development.
The developer had bought the 30-acre land parcel of Cabot Corporation for around Rs 200 crore in December 2015, while Standard Industries’ plot spread over 62 acres was acquired much later.
Data centers in India are emerging as the most attractive growth opportunity for global institutional investors and leading developers. Investments are flowing into the data centre markets, with multiple new markets created simultaneously, along with the rapid development of campus sizes found in the most established global cities.
So far, over a total $13.5 billion investment has been planned and committed for development of data centers in the country. The investment and commitments clearly indicate the rising preference for India among global data centre majors.
The rising appetite can be attributed to the data localisation norms and the government’s proposed new data centre policy aimed at simplifying the rules. The new data centre policy is also expected to provide necessary clearances and infrastructure in a time bound manner.
India is a high-growth market, with data center demand expected to significantly increase, driven by rapidly growing data consumption, digitization of the economy, the onset of 5G and data localization trends.
