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By Kane Wu and Yantoultra Ngui
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Global data centre operator Equinix is considering a sale of a minority stake in its Hong Kong facilities, valuing the assets at around $2 billion, two sources said, in a move to capitalise on the boom in demand from artificial intelligence.
Equinix has hired Citigroup to run the sale, the sources said, who have direct knowledge of the matter but declined to be named as the information is confidential.
The California-headquartered company could sell 25% in its Hong Kong data centres, one of the people said.
Without commenting on the possible minority stake sale, an Equinix spokesperson said that the company was fully committed to its Hong Kong business.
"Equinix Hong Kong serves as a key interconnection hub for our global customer base. We will continue to invest in future growth to ensure our customers can deploy in Hong Kong with confidence," the spokesperson said.
Citigroup declined to comment.
Equinix's plan comes as global private equity investors, asset managers and technology companies are readying for billions of dollars worth of deals and investments linked to data centres in Asia, as the artificial intelligence boom fuels demand for digital infrastructure.
Equinix runs five data centres in Hong Kong, serving hundreds of businesses from a wide range sectors, including more than 200 cloud and IT services and over 105 network services, its website showed.
Founded in 1998 in Silicon Valley, Equinix has expanded globally and now owns around 260 data centres globally, including nine markets in Asia Pacific, its website and 2023 annual report showed. Its top partners include AWS, Google Cloud and Oracle.
The Nasdaq-listed company has a market value of $75.7 billion, according to LSEG data, and its shares are down 0.9% so far this year.
In 2023, its net income rose to $968.98 million from $704.57 million a year ago, according to the annual report, while revenue rose to $8.18 billion in from $7.26.
(Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Louise Heavens)
