Equinix continues India expansion, buys out Mumbai data centre landlord

Equinix Inc, one of the largest digital infrastructure companies in the world, has acquired a land parcel housing one of its existing data centres in Mumbai’s Chandivali suburb.

The Nasdaq-listed company, through its subsidiary Equinix India, has bought out the landlord of its own operational 6MW data centre MB2 for Rs 155 crore.

The company has acquired the 1.4-acre land parcel from Overseas Packing Industries and Warden Hyforce. The deal values the land parcel at more than Rs 110 crore per acre.

Equinix had itself developed the data centre with more than 1,500 cabinets spread across a nearly 58,000 sq ft built-up area. The facility has been operational since 2019 on this land parcel that was earlier leased to the company.

The data centre provider has paid a stamp duty of over Rs 10.56 crore for the registration of the deal that took place on November 21, showed documents accessed through realty data analytics platform CRE Matrix.

Currently, Equinix India has two operational data centres in Mumbai—MB1 and MB2—which are connected by dark fibre to form a virtual campus. The company is in the process of operationalising two new data centres in Mumbai in the next few months.

“We are currently focusing on expanding the business through greenfield avenues. In addition to this deal, we are in discussions to acquire land parcels in other key metro cities as well. We may invest further over the next 2-3 years apart from already announced investments to set up data centres in India,” Manoj Paul, managing director, India, Equinix, told ET.

Last year, the company had announced an investment of $42 million for its fourth data centre in Mumbai. It had also announced the plan to invest $86 million in MB3, the third data centre that is under development.

In March 2022, Equinix entered the Chennai market with a 5.5-acre land acquisition. It is planning to invest $65 million to develop this data centre in Chennai.

In addition to these facilities, the company also has an operational data centre in Navi Mumbai’s Airoli, which is being expanded to 700 cabinets from the current capacity of 350 cabinets.

India's data centres are all set for exponential growth driven by the increasing integration of artificial intelligence across industries, the widespread adoption of cloud storage solutions by businesses and individuals, and the accelerated nationwide roll out of 5G technology.

In the backdrop of rising demand, India has witnessed investments flowing rapidly into the data centre markets over the last two-three years.

Factors such as the submarine cable infrastructure linking Mumbai and Chennai to Singapore, South East Asia, Europe and the Middle East will help position India as a more attractive Asia Pacific location for data centre development, expansion and investment in the years to come.