Goldman, Wren House Are Shortlisted in Nabiax Sale

(Bloomberg) — The owners of Nabiax have shortlisted firms including the infrastructure arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as potential buyers of the Spanish data center operator, people familiar with the matter said.

Wren House Infrastructure and Igneo Infrastructure Partners have also been shortlisted, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Nabiax’s two shareholders are private equity firm Asterion Industrial Partners and telecom operator Telefonica SA. They’re seeking a valuation of about €1 billion ($1.1 billion) or more for Nabiax in a sale, the people said.

Deliberations are ongoing and there’s no certainty they’ll result in a transaction, the people said. Spokespeople for Asterion, Nabiax, Telefonica, Igneo, Goldman Sachs and Wren House declined to comment. 

Data centers have become hugely attractive for long-term investors such as pension and infrastructure funds. The growing use of artificial intelligence, which requires large amounts of processing capacity, is driving demand for the assets. 

French private equity firm InfraVia Capital Partners is considering a sale of its data center operator in Switzerland for about €1 billion, Bloomberg News reported this month. Elsewhere, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is weighing a stake sale in some assets of French data center operator Data 4, while Spanish real estate developer Merlin Properties Socimi SA last month raised €921 million in a capital increase to fund its data center business.

A sale of Nabiax has been on the table since last year, but has faced delays. The company was created in 2021, after Asterion acquired data centers from Telefonica in Spain and Latin America. It subsequently sold the Latin American assets to focus on its home market.

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