Sterling and Wilson, an engineering, procurement and construction company of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, will raise ₹700 crore from a group of strategic investors through a stake sale in its data centre business, senior company officials said.
“The modalities of stake sale are still under discussion, but the strategic investors (more than one) have agreed to bring in ₹700 crore into Sterling and Wilson,” Prasanna Sarambale, CEO of data centre business at Sterling and Wilson (SWPL), told ET.
For this purpose, the company will hive off the data centre business – created in 2015 – as a separate entity, he said. The company will use the proceeds from stake sale to pare overall group debt as well as towards growth capital, Sarambale said.
The data centre division is a 100% business unit of SWPL and is debt-free, he said, adding that due to cloud, AI (artificial intelligence) and digital penetration in the country, the segment could see a CAGR of over 30%.
Over the last eight years, SWPL has built 24 data centres globally, totalling 63 MW of capacity. Of them, six data centres have been delivered in the international markets of MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa.
SWPL operates across the globe in more than 30 countries with a presence in regions such as Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Australia.
“As a diversified business group with interest across solar EPC, industrial EPC…generators and other segments, we felt that the data centre portfolio has tremendous potential,” said Khurshed Daruvala, chairman of SWPL. “We, therefore, inked this agreement to strengthen our balance sheet to support our brilliant management team. The new investors on board will further strengthen our financial position,” he said.
The company is currently executing 5 MW in Saudi Arabia, 10 MW for a hyperscaler in Hyderabad, and 3 MW for a client in DR Congo and Angola.
Source: Economic Times