Fair trade regulator CCI on Tuesday approved US-based Alpha Wave Global’s proposed stake purchase in Nxtra Data, the data centre and cloud services arm of Bharti Airtel.
Alpha Wave Global is acquiring a stake through Alpha Wave Ventures II, LP, a private equity fund co-managed by the alternative asset manager.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said it has cleared the proposed deal.
“CCI approves acquisition of certain shareholding in Nxtra Data Limited by Alpha Wave Ventures II, LP,” the competition watchdog said in a post on X.
In March this year, Bharti Airtel announced that its subsidiary Nxtra Data has secured USD 1 billion investment led by Alpha Wave Global, Carlyle and Anchorage Capital.
Bharti Airtel, which will also participate in the investment round, will continue to retain a controlling stake in Nxtra. As part of the acquisition deal, Alpha Wave Global will invest USD 435 million, with the rest to be infused by Carlyle, Anchorage Capital and Airtel.
After the completion of the transaction, Nxtra will be valued at around USD 3.1 billion.
The investment in Nxtra Data would be utilised for AI data centre expansion and to fuel the next phase of growth, Bharti Airtel said.
Founded in 2012, Alpha Wave is a global alternative asset manager.
Headquartered in New Delhi, Nxtra operates 14 large core data centres and 120-plus edge facilities across the country, offering co-location, cloud infrastructure, managed hosting, data backup, disaster recovery and edge computing services.
It has a facility in Pune and is developing additional AI-ready campuses in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Nxtra has recently partnered with Google to build a gigawatt-scale AI data centre campus, backed by a USD 15-billion investment.
Deals beyond a certain threshold require approval from CCI, which keeps a watch on unfair business practices and promotes fair competition in the marketplace.
Source: Business-Standard