TPG is in talks to buy British data centre group Ark Data Centres from Elliott Investment Management at a valuation of about $5 billion, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Discussions are ongoing and a deal is not guaranteed, the newspaper said.
Reuters, reporting the Financial Times story, said it could not verify the report, and that TPG and Ark did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bloomberg Law carried the same Financial Times account. The talks should therefore be read as reported, not agreed.
Ark, founded in 2005 and based in Wiltshire, runs data centres in the United Kingdom and Belgium and has a joint venture with the UK Government’s Cabinet Office, called Crown Hosting Data Centres, which gives it access to UK public sector data centre requirements. Elliott acquired Ark in 2012 and holds a controlling stake; Reuters had reported last year that Elliott was exploring strategic options for the business in a possible sale that could fetch more than $4 billion.
A price near $5 billion would mark a long hold exit for Elliott and a further step by TPG’s real estate and infrastructure arms into European compute capacity, following its backing of data centre ventures in the United States. No terms beyond the headline valuation have been reported, and neither the FT account nor Reuters states whether the figure is an equity or enterprise value.