Partners Group acquires largest data centre company in Iceland

Partners Group has announced the acquisition of atNorth, the largest data centre company in Iceland. Partners Group is a global private equity firm acquiring atNorth on behalf of its clients, although the details of the acquisition have not been released.

atNorth provides efficient, renewable, cost-effective data centre services to approximately 100 clients focused on HPC, enterprise, and blockchain customer segments from two existing locations in Iceland. The company also has a facility under construction in Stockholm, Sweden, boasting an 11 MW power capacity – to be completed early next year.

The Company’s data centres are designed for extraordinarily high power efficiency, leveraging local climate conditions and renewable power for cost-effective, environmentally-sound data centre solutions. 

According to the press release announcing the deal, Partners Group intends to transform atNorth into “a major pan-Nordic provider of sustainable and efficient data centre solutions.” This acquisition is foundational to building the infrastructure necessary to support emerging technologies in the region with environmentally-sound solutions.

“This opportunity to build next-generation infrastructure across the Nordics lies at the intersection of our Digitization and Decarbonization giga themes,” said Esther Peiner, Managing Director, Partners Group.

“Emerging technologies, such as machine learning, AI, and 5G, will likely drive exponential growth in the data centre infrastructure required to power and run such applications. Meanwhile, there is rising demand from businesses for green IT solutions. We have conviction in atNorth’s growth potential and look forward to working with CEO Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson and deputy CEO Eva Guðbjörnsdóttir on our transformational value creation plan.”

Demand for data centre services is rising across the region, making the atNorth acquisition even more attractive to investors. 

Ismail Afara from the Partners Group noted, “atNorth benefits from a profitable, cash-generative asset base and is a strong candidate for our platform expansion strategy. Demand for data centre capacity across the Nordics is rising at high double-digit annual growth rates, which provides significant development opportunities. We are excited to partner with the management team on atNorth’s next chapter.”