Digital 9 Acquires Verne Global, Citing Need for Sustainable Data Centers

Verne Global, the data center operator which established Iceland as a destination for high-performance computing, has been acquired by Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9) for £231 million (about $320 million US).

The deal highlights investor interest in digital infrastructure assets with a sustainability story, and closely follows a July transaction in which another operator with strong environmental credentials, Norway’s Green Mountain Data Centers, was bought up for $850 million.

“This is another key step to support decarbonizing the data center industry,” said Thor Johnsen, Head of Digital Infrastructure at Triple Point, D9’s Investment Manager. “For society to meet key decarbonization goals, we need to look for ways to shift energy consumptive activities to areas of surplus renewable energy.
The digital infrastructure industry has an increasing energy footprint, particularly data centers, which need to become more energy efficient and green.”

Digital 9 (D9) is a UK-based investment fund created to acquire a range of digital infrastructure companies, including data centers, fiber, subsea cables and telecom tower and small cell networks. D9 raised £300 million ($422.9 million) in an IPO in London last spring to fund its acquisitions, similar in concept to the SPACs (special purpose acquisition corporations) in the U.S. markets. It then acquired Aqua Comms, a subsea cable specialist.

D9 said its purchase of Verne Global “accelerates the investment trust’s ambition to decarbonize digital infrastructure by increasing access to data centers in areas where there are abundant supplies of clean energy.”

Establishing Iceland as a Data Center Destination

Verne Global built its data center campus on a 40-acre property in a former NATO command center, takes advantage of Iceland’s vast supply of renewable energy (hydroelectric and geothermal), along with a cool climate that allows the year-round use of outside air for free cooling for the entire year.

“Data centers form a key part of the digital infrastructure backbone,” said Johnsen. “Verne Global’s existing Icelandic based data center assets represent some of the cleanest, lowest carbon footprint data centers, globally.

“We are thrilled to add the Verne Global platform to the growing D9 portfolio,” Johnsen added. “Together with the D9 subsea investment in Aqua Comms, we are pursuing further fiber network opportunities to improve connectivity into the Nordics, enabling data center users reliable and low cost access to the vast renewable and low-cost energy resources of Iceland and the Nordics.”

Verne found its niche in high-performance computing, especially in data crunching for applications in financial services, manufacturing and life science. The company has operated as a wholesale data center provider, selling turn-key space in data suites and modules where customers can deploy their IT gear.