The asset management company Pátria Investimentos decided to put its data center division up for sale and is already in advanced talks with international M&A boutiques and foreign investment banks to define who could take over the business, sources familiar with the matter say. Odata would be valued at about $1 billion and is likely to attract the interest of foreign rivals in the sector and investment funds, sources say.

Created in 2015, the data center division of Pátria began as a startup offering infrastructure to house servers that process information with global distribution. The business has grown in recent years and has a presence in Colombia and Mexico.

Late last year, the company took a $30 million loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank arm, to finance the expansion of its data center structure in Brazil and Latin America.

For 2022, Odata has investment plans of around R$1.2 billion to strengthen its expansion in the state of São Paulo and also in Rio de Janeiro, the company told Valor recently.

A good part of Odata’s revenue comes from large cloud computing service providers, with long-term contracts – the company did not reveal the exact turnover. Besides service providers, the company has clients in education, telecommunications and finance.

The data center sector has received heavy investments. The consultancy IDC Brasil estimated that the companies’ spending on public cloud services in Brazil could reach $3 billion last year.

Sources say that Pátria’s business division may attract foreign groups, which are consolidating this segment in the international market.

In a more recent move, the Rio de Janeiro-based investment group Piemonte Holding bought five data centers from telecom Oi, which is under judicial reorganization and sold several assets, for R$325 million, and committed to invest R$42 million in the operation.

The Digital Colony group, owner of Highline in Brazil and which bought the towers auctioned by Oi, also has plans for multimillion investments to build new data centers in Brazil, Chile and Mexico through its company, Scala Data Centers.

With about $24 billion in assets under management at the end of last year, Pátria has heavy investments in companies in the country through funds in the infrastructure and real estate industries, as well as relevant stakes in the healthcare, agribusiness, food, and financial services industries.

Last year, the asset management company tried to draw investors for part of its businesses. However, the adverse international backdrop since last year and the political uncertainties due to the presidential elections in Brazil left the plans frozen for the end of this year or 2023.

Among the fund’s assets that may go public are the health companies Athena and Elfa. Another Pátria’s company that may go public is Lavoro, of agricultural inputs distribution, with presence in Latin America.

In January last year, Pátria’s private equity firm made its debut on the Nasdaq after raising $588 million. A good part of the proceeds will be used for acquisitions.

Pátria and Odata declined to comment.

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com