Private markets firm Partners Group has agreed, on behalf of its clients, to acquire atNorth, a data centre operator in Iceland, from its existing shareholder group.

The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

atNorth is a data centre platform in the Nordics with two locations in Iceland that have a total committed power capacity of c. 83MW and a c. 11MW site under construction in Stockholm, Sweden which will start operations in February 2022.

The company’s data centres are supplied by renewable power and utilise local climate conditions and heat recovery systems to provide extremely power efficient facilities.

atNorth serves around 100 clients across its High-Performance Compute (HPC), Enterprise, and Blockchain customer segments, including local and international blue-chip companies.

Accelerating digitisation, rising levels of IT outsourcing, new remote working trends, and continued innovation of cloud-based applications have increased demand for data processing capacity and highlighted the essential nature of data centres.

The Nordic data centre market is forecasted to grow at a 22.5% CAGR between 2021 and 2025, according to think tank Altman Solon.

Partners Group’s vision is to transform atNorth into a leading pan-Nordic provider of sustainable and efficient data centre solutions.

The firm will work with management on a transformational value creation plan that will include constructing new sites, growing the contract portfolio, building a connectivity ecosystem, and institutionalising internal processes.

Esther Peiner, Managing Director, Private Infrastructure Europe, Partners Group, said: “This opportunity to build next generation infrastructure across the Nordics lies at the intersection of our Digitization and Decarbonization giga themes.

“Emerging technologies, such as machine learning, AI, and 5G, will likely drive exponential growth in the data centre infrastructure required to power and run such applications. Meanwhile, there is rising demand from businesses for green IT solutions.

“We have conviction in atNorth’s growth potential and look forward to working with CEO Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson and deputy CEO Eva Guðbjörnsdóttir on our transformational value creation plan.”

Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, Chief Executive Officer, atNorth, added: “atNorth’s mission has been to be a leading Nordic provider of green colocation data centre services and high-performance computing solutions by leveraging our experience building both cost and power-efficient colocation data centres. As we have established our data centre operations in both Iceland and Sweden, we are now looking to accelerate our expansion.”

Also commenting, Ismail Afara, Private Infrastructure Europe, Partners Group, said: “atNorth benefits from a profitable, cash-generative asset base and is a strong candidate for our platform expansion strategy.

“Demand for data centre capacity across the Nordics is rising at high double-digit annual growth rates, which provides significant development opportunities. We are excited to partner with the management team on atNorth’s next chapter.”

atNorth marks Partners Group’s fourth digital infrastructure investment in 2021, with the firm committing approximately US$4 billion across the Digitisation theme since inception.