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Legal & General Capital's Kao Data becomes multi-site data centre platform with new West of London Acquisition
Legal & General Capital’s data centre business, Kao Data, announces the acquisition of two prime West of London sites within Slough, expanding the business to become a multi-location platform.
8 Feb 2022
Kao Data is a specialist developer and operator of high-performance data centres for enterprise, cloud, high performance compute and AI. Kao Data serves a strong and varied existing customer base on their mission critical workloads across key sectors including financial services, life sciences, defence, artificial intelligence and the cloud, amongst others.
The sites expand Kao Data’s available capacity across wider London to c55MW, all powered by 100% renewable energy. Benefitting from backup power generators powered by hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), fossil fuels are removed in their entirety. Kao Data has agreed a long-term anchor lease on part of the sites from a large financial institution,
This acquisition follows a number of exciting growth milestones for Kao Data, including securing investment at an accretive valuation at the end of last calendar year from HRL Morrison’s multi-billion Infratil infrastructure fund. Today’s announcement marks the first acquisition following the £130 million Infratil investment, delivering on ambitions to expand Kao Data’s market-leading, ultra-sustainable data centre business into a globally significant data centre platform.
Matteo Colombo, Strategic Capital Investment Director at L&G Capital: We are thrilled to have played our part as L&G in helping Kao Data secure this acquisition. Having near-term available capacity within the sought-after West of London area means Kao Data can meet the data needs of ever more customers, whilst delivering the critical infrastructure for today and tomorrow’s society. Legal & General continues to recognise the importance of supporting this growth in data capacity, whilst ensuring investments are as sustainable and economically attractive as possible, such as through these latest schemes which are powered by 100% renewable energy.”
Lee Myall, CEO of Kao Data: "The launch of our new Slough data centre offers data-intensive enterprises within the highly sought after West London Availability Zone, the opportunity to benefit from significant new capacity, as well as the advantage of working with Kao Data’s award-winning, sustainable infrastructure and expert technical and operations teams. With this move we are excited to be strengthening our data centre footprint across the UK and establish ourselves within the world’s second largest data centre hub. Kao Data has seen tremendous growth over the last twelve months, and the launch of our Slough facility is the next step in our continuing development.”
Further information
Lauren Kemp
Group Head of Corporate Media & Issues
Group Communications
T: 07946 514 627
Notes to editors
Established in 1836, Legal & General is one of the UK’s leading financial services groups and a major global investor, with £1.2 trillion in total assets under management (as at FY23) of which c40% (circa £0.5 trillion) is international.
We have a highly synergistic business model, which continues to drive strong returns. We are a leading international player in Institutional Retirement, in Retail Savings and Protection, and in both public and private markets through our Asset Management division. Across the Group, we are committed to responsible investing and dedicated to serving the long-term savings and investment needs of customers and society.
As at 7 June 2024, we estimate the Group’s Solvency II coverage ratio to be 224%.
As at 11 June 2024, Legal & General has a market capitalisation of £14.6 billion.
Legal & General Capital (LGC) is Legal & General Group’s alternative asset platform, creating assets for Legal & General Retirement and third-party clients in order to achieve improved risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders. LGC has built its capabilities in a range of alternative sectors, including in residential property; specialist commercial real estate; clean energy; alternative credit; and venture capital, which are all supported by long-term structural growth drivers, meet a financing gap, and respond to a scarcity of supply that is underpinned by enduring societal needs.