(Bloomberg) — One of Switzerland’s biggest data center operators Green, owned by InfraVia Capital Partners, has attracted initial interest from insurance companies, pension funds and private equity firms, people familiar with the matter said.
Swiss Life Holding, the country’s largest life insurer, is considering teaming up with Canada’s Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, known as Omers, for a potential bid, the people said. Private equity firm KKR & Company is also considering an offer, they said.
Other potential bidders studying a non-binding offer include Blackrock, Wren House Infrastructure and Igneo Infrastructure Partners, according to the people. Swiss Life, Omers, KKR, Blackrock, InfraVia and Wren House declined to comment. Igneo didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
InfraVia has been working with advisers on the potential sale of Green, Bloomberg News reported in August. The private equity firm is seeking a valuation of €2 billion ($2.2 billion) to €2.5 billion including debt for the data center operator, the people said.
Deliberations are ongoing and the companies could decide against any bid.
Infrastructure funds are taking advantage of the current artificial intelligence boom to monetize some holdings in their existing portfolio. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, for example, is in advanced talks to sell a stake in its mature asset portfolio of French data center operator Data4, Bloomberg News reported.
Green currently operates data centers at four locations in Switzerland, its website shows. It’s building two other high-performance data centers, which are scheduled to go into operation in 2026.
InfraVia bought the data center provider from Altice NV in a transaction that gave the business an enterprise value of about 214 million Swiss francs in 2018, according to a statement at the time.