Carlyle to buy 25% stake in Bharti Airtel's data centre business for $235 million

Bharti Airtel on July 1 said Carlyle Group will buy a 25 percent stake in its data centre business for $235 million.

Carlyle Group will make the investment in Bharti Airtel's Nxtra Data at a valuation of $1.2 billion. Bharti Airtel will continue to hold the remaining 75 percent holding in Nxtra Data.

Private equity player Carlyle will make the investment though an entity called Comfort Investments II.

This is Carlyle's third recent investment in India, after purchasing stakes in Sequent Scientific and Piramal Pharma.
"Rapid digitization has opened up a massive growth opportunity for data centres in India and we plan to accelerate our investments to become a major player in this segment," Gopal Vittal, CEO (India and Asia) of Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

Nxtra will use the proceeds from the deal to boost its infrastructure and offerings across India.