Colt Data Centre Services Forms $1.7B India Digital Infrastructure JV with RMZ

Just over a year after entering India with the launch of the first phase of a 134-megawatt Mumbai project, Colt Data Centre Services has inked a $1.7 billion joint venture with Bengaluru-based real estate and infrastructure investment manager RMZ to expand its digital infrastructure network in the South Asian nation.

The 50:50 venture of UK-based Colt DCS and RMZ’s digital infrastructure unit will initially focus on expediting development at Colt DCS’s pair of existing India hyperscale projects – one each in Mumbai and Chennai – with a third development site to be added in future. Those projects will have a combined capacity of approximately 250MW upon completion, the partners said.

Colt DCS, which develops and operates data centres in Europe and Japan, described India as a “strategic country of focus”, with the JV expected to accelerate the delivery of new capacity for the company’s customers in Asia’s third largest economy.

“In terms of our expansion India remains a strategic country of focus and key in terms of delivering against our aggressive growth strategy,” Colt DCS chief executive Niclas Sanfridsson said in a release on Tuesday. “Colt DCS has a proven track record, working with the world’s largest hyperscale cloud providers and multi-national companies. The partnership with RMZ will provide the opportunity to further accelerate and execute our ambitious plans.”

Growth Cornerstone

Colt DCS’s Navi Mumbai and Ambattur, Chennai projects are expected to deliver 134MW and 72MW of IT capacity upon completion, respectively. The 22MW first phase of the Navi Mumbai facility launched in September 2023, while the company has acquired land for the first phase of the Chennai project.

After RMZ set up an infrastructure division earlier this year, the JV marks the group’s entry into the data centre market, with the Indian firm pointing to the importance of digital infrastructure to the country’s ongoing development, amid growing cloud and AI adoption.

“We are witnessing an extraordinary shift in the data centre landscape, driven by the accelerating demands of cloud adoption and the AI revolution,” said RMZ Infrastructure CEO Deepak Chhabria. “At RMZ Infrastructure, we recognise that digital infrastructure is not just an investment theme but a cornerstone of India’s economic future. Colt DCS’ proven track record in delivering high-quality, scalable solutions aligns perfectly with our vision for India…This is our opportunity to shape the future of data infrastructure in India, and we are ready to rise to the challenge.”

RMZ, a family-owned developer, owner and operator of Indian real assets with holdings across office, industrial and logistics, hospitality, and luxury residential sectors as well as infrastructure, said the partnership will leverage its long term relationships with supply chain partners and the company’s India Fortune 500 customers.

The India tie-up comes after Colt DCS in March announced the opening of a 45MW Osaka data centre developed under a deal with its parent firm, US-based Fidelity Investments, along with Japanese giant Mitsui and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. In all, the company has six data centre facilities in Japan, three in Britain, three in Germany and one each in France and the Netherlands, in addition to its India projects.

Growing Investment

Digital infrastructure in India has become a top target, with JLL estimating in a June report that local and global investors will commit $5.7 billion to the sector by 2026 to fund the buildout of an estimated 650MW to 800MW of additional demand.

The South Asian nation stands tied with Japan as the second largest data centre market in Asia Pacific by operational capacity with 1.4GW of live IT as of 30 June, behind mainland China’s 4.2GW, according to Cushman & Wakefield. India, along with Japan, is on track to exceed 4GW in capacity in the next few years, according to the consultancy.

In September, Warburg Pincus-backed Princeton Digital Group acquired 88 acres (35.6 hectares) of land for a 500MW expansion in India, Malaysia and Indonesia. As part of that growth plan, the Singapore-based firm will add 100MW of capacity to its flagship Mumbai data centre to transform that facility into a 150MW campus. PDG also is developing a 72MW campus in Chennai which will boost the platform’s India footprint to 230MW.

In June, NASDAQ-listed Equinix announced an initial investment of $65 million for its fifth data centre in India, a facility occupying a 6 acre site in Chennai. A joint venture of Digital Realty, Brookfield Asset Management and India’s Reliance Industries in January unveiled plans for a 100-megawatt campus in northwestern Chennai’s Ambattur neighbourhood as its inaugural project.