The carve-out deal involves data centers based in Stockolm, Oslo, Copenaghen, Milano e Ginevra
NYSE-listed private capital giant Apollo Global Management said it acquired STACK Infrastructure’s pan-European data centre colocation business (press release). Blue Owl Digital Infrastructure, part of US asset manager Blue Owl acquired the vendor in January 2025 (press release).
In October 2024, Blue Owl acquired IPI Partners, the owner of STACK Infrastructure, from ICONIQ Capital and Iron Point Partners who fetched one billion US Dollars (80% in shares of the buyer and 20% in cash). In 1H24 IPI aums amounted to 10.5 billion (see here a previous post by BeBeez and press release).
Latham & Watkins assisted Apollo for such a carve-out deal that involves data centers based in Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Milan, and Geneva and that have telecommunications, service and IT companies and financial institutions as clients.
The EMEA’s workers for such assets will keep their roles while STACK will focus on hyperscale operations.
Sherif Rizkalla, the ceo of the new company that will soon rebrand, said: “We are delighted to partner with Apollo to accelerate the growth of our business as a new stand-alone company. By leveraging Apollo’s infrastructure expertise, significant access to resources and support, we believe we are exceptionally well positioned to capitalise on the tailwinds in our industry and bring even more value to our customers, employees and other stakeholders.”
Adam Petrie, a partner of Apollo, added: “We firmly believe in the fundamental tailwinds driving demand for data centre infrastructure. In particular, we believe that high-quality, interconnected colocation companies with differentiated value propositions such as the company’s offer an attractive long-term secular growth opportunity. We are excited to partner with Sherif and his team to take this company to the next level and expand its presence in Europe.”
John Eland, ceo of STACK EMEA, explained: “Last year, we created a dedicated enterprise colocation business unit in EMEA. The strategic creation of the colocation business unit allowed us to support the specialised requirements of the hyperscale sector, while enabling our colocation experts to cater exclusively for the needs of the enterprise sector. As STACK EMEA evolves to focus primarily on hyperscale customers, this transaction consolidates our commitment to hyperscale data centre development and operations, while our former enterprise colocation customers will continue to receive the highest standards of performance and support from dedicated experts.
In early 2021, IPI Partners’ STACK Infrasctrutures acquired Supernap Italia from US Switch and ACDC Fund which manages Italy’s biggest datacenter based in Siziano (Pavia area). Stack Infrastructure merged Supernap Italia with its Scandinavian portfolio comany Digiplex and rebranded them as STACK EMEA (see a previous post by BeBeez and another previous post by BeBeez).
In December 2020, Supernap Italia issued a Milan-listed bond of 63 million euros maturing in December 2025 and paying a 6M Euribor plus 375 bps coupon (see here a previous post by BeBeez). SCOR
Infrastructure Loans III and Royale Infrastructure Senior Loans ivnested in the bond and in 2022 carried on a securitization through SPV Project 2020 (see here the Italian Government Bullettin).
“We have several operational data centres in Siziano (Pavia), where we continue to expand, and going forward we aim to supply over 300 MW in many other sites in the Milan area in the coming years”, Eland said to BeBeez Magazine in December. The interview was part of a report about Italan datacenters sector (the item is available to the subscriber of BeBeez News Premium or BeBeez Private Data – fill in the form for a free downlad of BeBeez Magazine).
Blue Owl and Apollo Global Management are part of the private capital stock selection that BeBeez and eToro monitor on Trading Floor
