GIC, Mubadala in talks to join KKR's $10 billion deal to acquire STT GDC
The sovereign wealth funds GIC Pte and Mubadala Investment Co. from Singapore and Abu Dhabi are set to back the KKR-led transaction as minority co-investors
 "GIC, Mubadala in talks to join KKR's $10 billion deal to acquire STT GDC")
By Elffie Chew, Manuel Baigorri and Alex Dooler
GIC Pte and Mubadala Investment Co. are in talks to join KKR & Co. and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. in their potential purchase of data center operator STT GDC Pte, people familiar with the matter said, in what could be one of the biggest digital infrastructure deals in recent months.
The sovereign wealth funds from Singapore and Abu Dhabi are set to back the KKR-led transaction as minority co-investors, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. A potential deal may value STT GDC at more than $10 billion including debt, the people said.
The firms are hammering out details of a transaction that could be announced as soon as this week, they said.
Singtel shares rose as much as 2.6 per cent on Monday, before paring some of the gains. The company has a market value of $60 billion.
Dow Jones reported on Sunday that a KKR-led consortium including Singtel was nearing a deal for STT GDC. Singtel said in an exchange filing following the report that it is in advanced discussions regarding the data center company but there’s no certainty of any definitive or binding agreement.
Representatives for GIC and Mubadala declined to comment. KKR and ST Telemedia didn’t respond to requests for comment outside of regular business hours.
KKR and Singtel have been in talks with banks for a loan of around S$5 billion ($3.9 billion) to support the transaction, Bloomberg News reported in November, about four months after discussions between the firms emerged.
KKR and Singtel are existing investors in STT GDC after paying $1.3 billion for a minority stake in 2025. STT GDC’s parent, ST Telemedia, owns the rest. ST Telemedia is backed by Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings Pte, which also owns half of Singtel.
Based in Singapore, STT GDC is one of Asia’s largest data center operators with more than 100 such facilities across 20 markets including India, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia. It also has presence in the UK, Italy and Germany. The company provides services such as co-location, connectivity and support.
Data centers are attracting a lot of investor interest, not least because of their role in the artificial intelligence boom. Investors led by BlackRock Inc.’s Global Infrastructure Partners agreed to buy Aligned Data Centers in a $40 billion deal in October. Just before year end, SoftBank Group Corp. agreed to acquire private equity firm DigitalBridge Group Inc. for about $3 billion in cash.
Still, some concerns have been brewing about the high levels of spending in AI infrastructure. Last week, people familiar with the matter said that SoftBank has halted talks about an acquisition of US data center operator Switch Inc., a setback to founder Masayoshi Son’s ambition to roll out Stargate AI infrastructure.