Hong Kong private investment manager PAG Real Estate has partnered with digital infrastructure entrepreneur Kris Kumar to form an investment vehicle to build digital infrastructure across Asia.

The parties said in a statement: “The company will address the rapidly expanding demand for experienced skillsets and risk-managed capital allocation in the acquisition, development, ownership and operation of digital infrastructure assets.”

The newly formed vehicle will focus on colocation, cloud, hyperscale and enterprise data centres as well as network and fibre assets and will leverage PAG’s data centre assets and landholdings.

PAG Real Estate’s new business will include PAG’s approximately US$2 billion in investments in the sector, with plans to invest $10 billion over the next five to seven years.

Kumar, whose career has seen him lead Digital Realty’s APAC efforts in the early 2010s, found Bridge Data Centres and more recently served as vice chairman for the Chindata Group Holdings post the merger of Bridge Data Centres with Chindata, will assume the role of chairman of the company.

Kumar said: “With PAG’s entrepreneurial approach, decades of experience, superior investment track record and ready access to a competitive cost of capital, my perennial enthusiasm for the sector quickly resurfaced, to lift me out of my year-long retirement.

“I am looking forward to helping build a platform company on the strong foundation of an already-substantive investment by PAG in the sector over the last four years. I strongly believe in our vision of becoming a diligent, customer-focused, and profitable digital infrastructure investor/operator in the region. We are assembling a strong team with a diverse skill set and best-in-class investment and operational experience, to execute this vision.”

PAG President Jon-Paul Toppino, said: “Kris is an icon in the digital infrastructure industry, and we are very excited to work with him to create this platform company that will serve the infrastructure needs of this new digital era that we live in.

“With his experience and PAG’s expertise in development and investment, we are looking forward to building a robust platform that will stand the test of time.”

The Asian data centre market is expected to grow at about 10% to 12% annually through 2024, according to Structure Research.