Hana Financial Investment Turns to 'Data Center', Loan Investment for Acquiring Shares in Global Companies

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Jeong-su] Hana Financial Investment has invested 110 billion KRW in a fund acquiring shares of a global data center specialist company. Amid difficulties in selling down existing overseas alternative investments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attention is shifting to other investment destinations such as data centers.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 20th, Hana Financial Investment recently contributed 110 billion KRW to the overseas investment private equity fund 'Pine Street US Infrastructure Specialized Fund No. 5,' established by Pine Tree Asset Management. The total fund size is 190 billion KRW, with Hana Financial Investment providing more than half of the capital.

Pine Tree Asset Management will use these funds to invest in an equity bridge note for share acquisition of 'CBRE Caledon Valhalla 1 and 2.' 'CBRE Caledon' is an infrastructure and private equity specialist company affiliated with the global real estate group CBRE, and 'CBRE Caledon Valhalla 1 and 2' are investment-purpose funds established locally in Canada. The raised capital will be used to acquire shares of the global data center operator 'Vantage Data Center.'

'Vantage Data Center' is a data center solutions company operating mainly in North America and Europe. It has supplied turnkey data center solutions to major industrial cities such as Quincy, Santa Clara, Phoenix, and Ashburn in the United States. It has also built customized data centers in Montreal and Quebec City in Canada, Berlin and Frankfurt in Germany, Zurich in Switzerland, and Milan in Italy.

The alternative investment industry, including Hana Financial Investment, has recently turned its attention to asset investments in logistics centers and data centers. This is due to increased demand for logistics and data usage following COVID-19. Overseas offices and hotels, which were major investment destinations, are being avoided by institutional investors due to risks such as economic downturns and travel suspensions.

An IB industry official said, "Compared to other global real estate investments, data centers and logistics facilities are relatively attractive, but there is not much supply of highly profitable and safe investment opportunities domestically," adding, "Domestic securities firms and asset managers are increasing investments that take on risks such as subordinated loans or equity investments."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.