Macquarie Korea Infrastructure Fund (MKIF) announced it has finalized a deal to purchase a 40MW data center in Hanam, located about eight miles east of Seoul, South Korea, for $538.4 million. This acquisition, reported by the Australian Financial Review, involves buying the facility from IGIS Asset Management Co., a Seoul-based firm.
The data center spans 41,919 square meters (451,212 square feet) across 12 stories and is largely leased to Kakao Corp (92 percent), with the remaining eight percent rented by LG CNS Co., a subsidiary of the LG Group.
The transaction is expected to be completed in September 2024, and MKIF is projected to invest around $672 million in total, covering construction and financing costs. MKIF will use a mix of equity, subordinated loans, and senior loans to fund the purchase. The deal includes a cap rate in the low-to-mid-six percent range.
The Hanam data center’s location in the Seoul metropolitan area is considered advantageous due to stable communication networks, though securing additional water sources in the area remains challenging.
The seller, IGIS, began construction on the facility in October 2021, and initial reports of a sale emerged in November 2023. This acquisition comes as Macquarie is also reportedly seeking to sell its stake in APAC data center operator AirTrunk, with several major investors, including GIP, Blackstone, DigitalBridge, and Silver Lake, showing interest. AirTrunk has rapidly expanded since its founding in 2016, with operations across Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore. Macquarie Asset Management and PSP Investments currently hold a combined 88 percent stake in AirTrunk, the Review reported.
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