Silver Lake Management is joining a consortium backed by IFM Investors Pty and DigitalBridge Group Inc in the bidding for Australian data centre operator Airtrunk, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) is also part of the IFM-backed group, said the people, who asked not to be identified. AirTrunk’s owners, which include Macquarie Group Ltd’s asset management arm and PSP Investments, could seek a valuation of about A$20 billion (US$13 billion) in the potential sale, one of the people said.

Deliberations are ongoing and no final decisions have been made, the people said. Representatives for GIP, DigitalBridge and Silver Lake declined to comment. Spokespeople for IFM and Macquarie didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative for AirTrunk also didn’t immediately respond outside regular business hours in Australia. 

The AirTrunk sale is set to be one of Asia Pacific’s biggest digital infrastructure deals this year. Blackstone Inc had also shown interest in the asset, people familiar with the matter said last month.

AirTrunk runs data centres in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia, its website shows. The company opened its new global headquarters in Sydney in February. A group led by Macquarie took control of the company in 2020, in a deal that valued it at about A$3 billion, Bloomberg News reported at the time.  

  - Bloomberg