Global Switch, the huge commercial data centre firm owned by two of UK’s richest people, is in talks with a consortium of Asian investors in a deal expected to be worth over £2bn.
UK billionaires David and Simon Reuben, topped the 2016 Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £13.1bn, up £3.4bn over the previous year.
The high profile brothers are leaders in private equity, real estate investment and development and venture capital. Investments include data centres, aerodromes, technology and media.
Reports state that the brothers participated in earlier talks regarding a £5bn deal, towards selling half of the company to a consortium led by Chinese firm Daily Tech. This included a private financial subsidiary of state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China.
Global Switch was established in 1998 and is known for its development and operations within data centres in Europe and Asia.
The brothers bought the firm in 2004 when it was said to be worth £585m. Estimates value it today at between £4.5bn and £5bn.
The firm is known to have ten data centres in its fleet, including sites in key markets London, Singapore, and Hong Kong, with seven located in Europe. The gross area across the portfolio totals to 3.2m sq ft.
A spokesperson from Global Switch said: “If the investment is concluded by the consortium, there will be no change to the management or strategic direction of Global Switch. Aldersgate Investments Limited and the consortium will exercise joint control of Global Switch,”
Following the British Prime Minister, Theresa May saying she wanted her security advisers to help review a delayed nuclear power investment from China; Global Switch said there were no security issues relating to its possible transaction.
The Global Switch spokesperson added: “Global Switch has no access to customer data whatsoever and only provides space, power, cooling and physical security. Global Switch provides no IT services for its customers.”
