nLighten, a digital infrastructure platform of I Squared Capital through its ISQ Global Infrastructure Fund III, has acquired Euclyde Data Centers (“Euclyde”), a leading French regional platform with six, carrier-neutral data centers in Sophia Antipolis, Lyon, Strasbourg, Besançon and Paris.
Along with nLighten’s existing operations in Germany, the acquisition of Euclyde establishes the nLighten platform in two of Europe’s core data center markets. France is a compelling choice for extending nLighten’s footprint as it is a mature market with large economic regions that could benefit from more localized data centers. Euclyde’s nationwide network of high-quality data centers, strong reputation and agility make it well suited for this accelerating shift to the edge. Euclyde also has a strong track record of entering new regional markets in France through accretive greenfield and M&A transactions, which nLighten will seek to further accelerate.
Euclyde’s distributed asset base is well-aligned with nLighten’s strategy to integrate data centers into the data and energy infrastructure of regional markets. In particular, the low greenhouse gas intensity of the French energy market presents a strong operational synergy with nLighten’s ambition to reduce its environmental footprint.
Amidst evolving data sovereignty standards within Europe, nLighten intends to retain operational leadership of the data centers in country and places high importance on their identification with the French market.
“With this acquisition, we are taking another step towards our goal of creating a leading pan-European edge data center platform. Euclyde is an excellent fit with our strategy, and the existing management team, employees and assets are a solid base for our ambitions in France,” said Harro Beusker, co-founder and CEO of nLighten.
“We are delighted to have concluded this agreement with I Squared Capital and nLighten. Through its pan-European vision, and I Squared Capital’s financial support, nLighten brings to Euclyde the means to become the leader in the French edge data center space,” said Magdi Houry, founder and majority owner of Euclyde.
DC Advisory served as financial advisor and Askesis served as legal advisor to the sellers. Reinhart Marville Torre served as legal advisor to nLighten.
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