Gaw Capital creates Data Centre First for Indonesian expansion

Gaw Capital, a real estate investment firm with over $30 billion under management, has created a joint venture based on Indonesian data centre market expansion.

Data Centre First will begin building Indonesian data centres with its first project in the Nongsa Digital Park in Batam.

Wong Ka Vin, a data centre leader with a history of success with companies including Equinix, will be the co-founder and CEO of Data Center First.

Kenneth Gaw, President and Managing Principal of Gaw Capital, stated that the joint venture represents a key milestone in the Gaw Partners entry into the data centre industry.

“I am excited to be working with Ka Vin and his team of professionals in creating this data centre operating platform,” he said, noting that the data centre industry is “an industry that enables digital transformation opportunities for organizations globally to continue to grow.

“We plan to grow our regional data centre platform rapidly through a combination of multiple asset and platform acquisitions and our partnership with Data Center First is the first step in the execution of this strategy.”

In September 2020, Gaw Capital entered the data centre market in China, raising $1.3 billion USD for its initial foray. Data Centre First will utilize the lessons learned in China and apply them to the rapidly growing Indonesian market.

Gaw Capital has a history of independent thinking that sometimes runs counter to accepted thinking among real estate investors. For example, in 2020 most commercial real estate investors being conservative with investments in office space. Many companies were – and still are – considering the continuation of remote work even beyond the stay-at-home orders related to the pandemic. Many investors were waiting to see how this would affect the commercial real estate market prior to making commitments to invest.

Gaw Capital, on the other hand, invested more money in Hong Kong real estate in 2020 than in the previous three years combined. These investments included office space, shopping malls and now, Indonesian data centres.

“Ultimately basic human nature will prevail — If you are a good company with a good working environment you’re going to attract the type of employees who want to be in the office interacting with other smart people,” Kenneth Gaw said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “They want to be there, showing to their bosses how hard they’re working, what type of leadership qualities they have.”