NTT Data Buys Johor Site From Malaysia’s Tropicana for $88M

The IT services arm of Japanese telecom giant NTT has acquired an expanse of land in Malaysia’s southern Johor state for MYR 383 million ($88 million).

Malaysian developer Tropicana Corp on Monday signed a sale and purchase agreement with NTT Data for the 68.5 acres (27.7 hectares) in Gelang Patah on the western outskirts of Johor Bahru, Tropicana said in a release.

NTT Data’s subsidiaries include NTT Ltd, the London-based umbrella for the group’s regional data centre projects. No plans for the freehold land parcel were disclosed, but Tropicana noted that Johor has attracted more than 50 data centre projects within the last two years.

“Johor is experiencing an exciting time and the rapid growth in the digital industry suggests that it is well on its way to becoming a new data centre hub in Southeast Asia,” said the builder controlled by founder Tan Chee Sing.

Market Stays Hot

A Johor project would be NTT’s first data centre in the south of peninsular Malaysia, adding to an existing six facilities in Cyberjaya near Kuala Lumpur. Increased activity in Johor has helped push Malaysia to the top of the list of APAC’s fastest-growing data centre markets, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield.

In June, state-backed telcos Singtel and Telekom Malaysia revealed a joint venture to develop Malaysian data centres, starting with a Johor campus with a potential capacity of 200 megawatts. The same month, a data centre unit of Microsoft agreed to acquire a development site at EcoWorld’s Eco Business Park VI in Johor’s Kulai for MYR 402.3 million in cash.

In July, Princeton Digital Group delivered the 52MW initial phase of its 150MW JH1 data centre campus, coming less than 14 months after it acquired the development site at Sedenak Tech Park in Kulai.

The project marked Singapore-based PDG’s entry into Malaysia, the platform’s sixth country after Johor’s next-door neighbour Singapore, China, Indonesia, India and Japan.

Regional Rollout Continues

NTT’s land buy in Johor follows the opening earlier this year of the group’s second data centre campus in India’s National Capital Region, with the company completing delivery of a 22.4MW facility as the first stage of the complex in Noida.

The launch of Noida 2 increased the India footprint of NTT’s Global Data Centers platform to more than 265MW across 18 facilities in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.

Last year, NTT unveiled its third data centre in Thailand, located 57 kilometres (35.4 miles) from central Bangkok at Amata City Chonburi industrial estate in the Eastern Economic Corridor

The 12MW BKK3 will provide more than 43,000 square feet of IT space when fully built out. The data centre is scheduled to begin operations in the second half of 2024 on a site adjacent to the 3.6MW BKK2.

In May of this year, Mingtiandi reported that NTT was in talks to buy nearly a half-stake in the data centre business of Philippine telecom giant PLDT.