Equinix enters Indian data centre market with acquisition of GPX local operations

New York based carrier-neutral data centre provider GPX Global Systems has announced that it will be selling its Indian operations to Equinix for an all cash transaction worth $161 million.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020, subject to customary closing conditions and necessary regulatory approval.

With the deal, data centre provider Equinix will acquire GPX’s two tier-4 data centers in Mumbai. The two data centers are 30,000 sq/ft GPX Mumbai1 and the 60,000 sq/ft Mumbai2, which was opened in December 2019 and whose construction is underway. The deal will add 1,350 cabinets to Equinix, with an additional 500 cabinets after completion of building the second data centre.

GPX said that its internet ecosystem in India includes 12 telecom companies, over 130 internet service providers, four internet exchanges, eight cloud service providers and global content delivery networks and OTT (over-the-top) platforms.

"After 7 years of building our business in India I could not think of any company better suited than Equinix to expand the platform GPX has created in India,” Nick Tanzi, President & CEO, GPX Global Systems said in a statement.

Tanzi added that GPX will now focus its attention on Egypt, where it has its two data centres in Cairo. GPX is an established player in Africa and South Asia markets with offices in Ireland, Dublin and Cairo.

From the standpoint of a Redwood, California based Equinix, new customers in India will get access to more than 200 international brands and local companies who have partnered with the data centre services provider.  Equinix currently provides more than 210 data centres in 56 metros and 26 countries, for more than 9,500 businesses.

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“The acquisition of GPX's business in India means we are able to make a giant leap forward in terms of growing our ecosystem in India, and gives us a solid foundation for rapid growth and expansion in the country,” Charles Meyers, President and CEO, Equinix said.

A February 2020 report by research firm researchandmarkets.com said that the data center market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of over 4% during the period 2019- 2025.  This is attributed to migration to cloud-based business operations, the Indian government’s digital push, and an increase in big data and IoT (internet of things) deployments.

Another March 2020 report by management consulting firm McKinsey said that the core digital sectors in India, such as information technology and digital communication services, were projected to double in size by 2025 and could contribute close to $355-435 billion to India’s gross domestic product or GDP.