Hong Kong, 9th October 2019 – Actis Asia Real Estate Fund, (“AAREF”), managed by Actis, a
leading growth markets investor, and Chayora Holdings Limited (“Chayora”) have reached
agreement for AAREF and other Actis managed funds to invest up to a further US$180m equity
in Chayora’s Series C round of funding and has completed the US$64m first tranche of the
investment. This is in addition to the original Series B investment made by the Actis team in
March 2016 when part of Standard Chartered Principal Finance Real Estate, resulting in AAREF
securing a majority holding in Chayora. This Series C funding will provide Chayora with expansion
capital for its data centre development projects. Combined with project debt of c.US$250m, it
will enable Chayora to complete two hyperscale data centre facilities on the Chayora’s Tianjin
campus and acquire land bank for further growth.
With this initial completion of the Series C funding agreement, AAREF now holds a majority
proportion of ordinary shares in Chayora Holdings Limited. Under the investment agreement all
land and property interests previously held under separate ownership structures will be
integrated and become 100% owned by Chayora. This includes the land and first data centre
building already completed on the 80 acre, 300MVA Tianjin campus that serves the greater
Beijing area of 150 million population. The capital will support the acquisition of further land in
Tianjin campus expansion and also the first land plots for the planned Chayora Shanghai area
campus in neighbouring provinces.
The investment partnership between Actis and Chayora combines required capital, extensive
power-related and technological infrastructure project expertise globally, key customer
relationships and China market expertise with the proven data centre campus platform now
established by Chayora’s in-China teams.
In addition, Chayora is launching its first colocation data halls designed to Tier III concurrently
maintainable international standards to accommodate the high demand for smaller scale data
storage requirements alongside the build-to-suit services available to both international and
Chinese domestic hyperscale cloud service providers. The colocation facility will be managed in
partnership with an established colocation operator. The Chayora product offering of highly
resilient, energy efficient facilities developed to world-class design and construction standards
and extending into consistent international operational management is building a brand identity
that assures all customers that data centre environments comparable to the best world-wide can
be accessed on compelling commercial and fully funded terms within China.
“We are very excited to extend our partnership with Chayora and to support its next phase of
expansion and growth with this Series C round of funding. With a focused approach to develop
world class standard data centre campuses in China, Chayora has amassed all the essential
ingredients in a challenging regulatory environment to be a one-stop data centre infrastructure
solution provider. We look forward to working closely with Chayora’s founders and management
team to make it one of the preferred data centre partners for both domestic and international
internet and cloud players in China.” comments Brian Chinappi, Partner and Head of Asia Real
Estate of Actis.
“The close working relationship we have developed with the Actis team is valued and we are very
pleased to have concluded agreement for the significant commitment being made to Chayora in
this funding round. For Actis and Chayora, this underlines our strategic and long-term plan to
create a leading data centre business in China to support market access by the world’s leading
online services businesses. Data volumes continue to grow in exponential terms and in China, as
the world’s largest online market, the levels of technical innovation in AI, ML and related
applications in responding to end user demands, means being in China offers huge potential to
global sector leaders. The effort and commitment to securing a trade agreement promises even
greater opportunities for prospective customers and Chayora will now move forward to ensure
world-class data centre environments with Chayora as a trusted counterparty are available to
meet demand. This will be from smaller requirements through to hyperscale: from global Fortune
500 companies to new, well-funded new entrants and innovators wanting to be part of the next
wave of Cloud and ICT innovation in China.” says Oliver Jones, CEO, Chayora.
About Actis:
Actis is a leading investor in growth markets across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Actis delivers
consistent, competitive returns, responsibly, through insights gained from trusted relationships,
local knowledge and deep sector expertise.
Founded in 2004, Actis has an unparalleled heritage in growth markets, set within a culture of
active ownership. Actis has raised US$15bn since inception and employs over 200 people,
including a team of c.120 investment professionals, working across 16 offices globally.
Actis has established itself as a leading investor in the energy infrastructure space having
committed more than US$5 billion to 34 investments across 25 countries – generating 25GW and
providing electricity to nearly 90 million customers.
About Chayora:
Chayora Holdings Limited, a Cayman Island registered company headquartered in Hong Kong, is
a developer of hyperscale, world-class designed and operated, scalable data centres and data
centre campuses in China. Chayora serves global Fortune 500 companies, premium Chinese data
centre operators and international standard colocation users to enable cloud services, ICT
services, financial services or other services offerings dependent on intensive, high quality data
centre infrastructure in China.
Chayora’s core offer is to develop and operate large-scale, built-to-suit, high-performance data
centres for individual clients on 5 to 15-year contracts, on multiple strategically located campuses
with ‘ready to operate’ robust scalable infrastructure capable of supporting the operation of data
centres to world-class standards. Subject to customer requirements, Chayora can offer this on a
flexible powered land basis through to a full turnkey and operate solution with a unique modular
approach to growth in required capacity as it is needed. As part of the overall solution Chayora
offers highly competitive power supply arrangements and green power solutions, project
financing solutions and fully transparent contracts with best-in-class global performance
commitments in China.
For more information about Chayora, visit www.chayora.com.
Contact: For media relations enquiries, please contact either:
Chayora:
Oliver Jones (oliver.jones@chayora.com / +852 9227 3850 / +44 7802 985053)
Jonathan Berney (jonathan.berney@chayora.com / +852 9223 1446 / +852 2297 2202)
Actis:
John Thompson (jthompson@act.is /+44 20 7234 5107)
Brian Chinappi (bchinappi@act.is / +852 9028 6276)
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