Kotak Mahindra Arm to invest ₹1000cr in Sify’s Data Center biz, RE Assets

A distressed assets focused fund promoted by a Kotak Mahindra Bank arm on Monday announced a Rs 1,000-crore investment in the data centre business of Sify Technologies.

The investment in Sify Infinit Spaces will help the company invest up to Rs 4,000 crore in building data centres in Mumbai, Noida, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad and also invest in renewable energy assets for the company’s assets, a statement said.

Kotak Special Situations Fund (KSSF), which is managed by Kotak Investment Advisors, has signed an agreement under which an investment will be done in compulsorily convertible debentures which will convert into equity based on the operational performance of SIS over a specified reference period, it said.

The data centres business is attracting investment commitments from major corporates including Adanis and Japan’s NTT on rising digital consumption and policy moves like data localization. Sify had installed India’s first such facility over two decades ago.

“Data Centres are at the core of the country’s Digital India ambition, and we believe that with vibrant entrepreneurship in the digital space, rich media consumption by an exploding well-connected population and increasing requirements for local storage of data, India’s Data Centre sector is a long term secular opportunity,” Srini Sriniwasan, managing director of Kotak Investment Advisors, said.

“India is set for significant economic growth and is becoming the first choice destination for both global businesses and investors. India is witnessing the rise of Information technology-driven entrepreneurship and business growth. The current capacity of the Data Centre industry in India is expanding at an unprecedented pace, powered by wider cloud adoption, 5G rollout and accelerated digital transformation programmes of enterprises,” Sify’s chairman and managing director Raju Vegesna said.

“We are delighted to partner with KSSF as a part of this journey to build world-class Data Centre facilities for our customers to benefit from the large scale digital transformation of India,” said Vegesna.