Teraco Data Environments, the leading provider of colocation data centres and interconnection platforms in Africa, today announced the successful completion of the previously announced agreement by Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud and carrier-neutral data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions, to acquire a majority interest in Teraco from a consortium of investors, including Berkshire Partners and Permira.

As South Africa’s largest and most densely interconnected data centre platform, Teraco supports the rapid growth of the continent’s Internet community through its expanding portfolio of data centres. Teraco’s experienced management team, growing multi-national client base, quality infrastructure and ownership of NAPAfrica, the continent's largest Internet Exchange Point, are key differentiators that position the company for sustainable growth.

The acquisition of Teraco adds South Africa to Digital Realty’s three markets on the continent, including Kenya, Mozambique, and Nigeria. The strategic importance of these four markets has been enhanced by the recent and ongoing implementation of new subsea cable networks encircling Africa. Combined with Digital Realty’s highly connected facilities, clients now have access to a choice of strategic connectivity and interconnection platforms that serve all corners of the African market.

“Teraco has made significant progress in achieving our strategic objectives, including improving the connectivity and accessibility of our data centres, in supporting the rapid digital transformation in the region,” says Jan Hnizdo, Chief Executive Officer, Teraco. “Africa is poised to remain a high growth, high-demand area for data centre solutions. Our combined, diversified platform will further enable us to support our customers in the pan-Africa region and worldwide.”

"We are very excited to complete this transformative transaction that positions Digital Realty as the premier data centre and connectivity provider on the high-growth African continent,” says A. William Stein, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Realty. “Today’s milestone gives us significant regional scale and access to a premier, high-quality portfolio in Africa’s largest market, enhancing our ability to serve growing customer demand for connectivity in the region. We’re thrilled to strengthen our global platform and deepen our commitment to investing in Africa as we capitalise on the tremendous opportunity in the region.”

With the acquisition, Teraco will be known as Teraco: A Digital Realty Company.

-Ends-

About Teraco Data Environments

Teraco, a leading carrier-neutral colocation provider in Africa, is the first provider of highly resilient, vendor-neutral data environments in sub-Saharan Africa. With its world-class data centre infrastructure and network-dense ecosystems, Teraco forms a vital part of the African Internet’s backbone and is essential to the modern enterprise’s digital transformation strategy. Teraco is part-owned by Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) – offering customers a global data centre platform designed to enable the digital business to scale within a highly connected data community across 300+ data centres in 50+ metros and 27 countries on six continents – and a consortium of private equity investors, including Berkshire Partners LLC and Permira. For more information, please visit teraco.co.za or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Digital Realty

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data centre platform, provides customers with a secure data “meeting place” and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx™) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected communities that matter to them with a global data centre footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 27 countries on six continents. Please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to learn more about Digital Realty.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the company's closing of the transaction with Teraco, the South African and African market, development plans and operations in Africa, access to subsea cables, Digital Realty's strategy, the expected growth of the digital economy, customer demand, and expected benefits.  For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For more information, contact GinjaNinja:
Kirsty Thompson
kirsty@ginjaninja.co.za