VMO2 pledges £1m for STEM apprenticeships
Virgin Media O2 has today announced it is creating a new £1 million talent fund
New Zealand’s Spark has this week confirmed that it is spinning off its data centre arm and selling a majority stake to Sydney-based private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners (PEP).
PEP will take a 75% stake in the newly created standalone platform, dubbed ‘DC Co’, in a transaction that values the business at roughly NZ$705 million (USD $417.5 million). Spark will receive NZ$486 million (USD $288 million) upon the deal’s completion and up to NZ$98 million (USD $58 million) in deferred cash proceeds.
PEP is one of the region’s largest private equity investors, with about around USD $9.1 billion of assets under management across various sectors.
“We are pleased to reach this agreement with PEP, one of Australia’s leading private capital managers with a strong track record of growing businesses across New Zealand and Australia,” said Spark CEO, Jolie Hodson. “Through this partnership we will realise value for our data centre assets in the short term, while also continuing to participate in the growing market through our 25% retained stake – creating further value for our shareholders over the long term.”
As part of the deal, Spark says DC Co will expand its capacity from roughly 22–23MW today to 130MW, aiming to meet the rising demand for cloud and AI workloads. Chair Justine Smyth told investors at a half‑year update in February that the expansion “will require $1b‑plus of capex over the next five to seven years”, with external capital and co‑investment required to fund that expansion.
Spark has already acquied some of the land needed for the development at an Auckland site called Dairy Flat, according to reports. The first stage will see Spark build out 10MW of capacity at the site over the next 18 months, with the potential for a further 40MW expansion.
A formal timeline to deploy the full 130MW of capacity has not been annouced.
If DC Co’s 130MW target is realised, it would put the business in direct competition with the hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon, both of whom have announced major data centre investments in New Zealand in recent years.
The deal is subject to customary regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of the year.
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