The fund will invest in the development of three data centre campuses in Greater Tokyo
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) recently made a $1.3 billion investment to alternative investment manager Ares Management’s real estate opportunistic fund Japan DC Partners I (JDC I), as reported in an article by P&I Daily.
The fund will be dedicated to investing in the development of three data center campuses in Greater Tokyo, which is one of the largest data center hubs in the world. The data center campuses are forecasted to collectively deliver around 240 megawatts of IT load.
Ares announced on June 11 that that the fund closed with $2.4 billion in total equity commitments, with CPPIB being one of the large institutional investors in the fund. Following the fund’s final close, Ares aims to be one of the largest data center investors in Japan with the capital to meet the demand for cloud and AI applications.
“With the increasing adoption of AI and cloud computing technologies positioning Japan as a key market in the global data center ecosystem, we believe this capital will enable Ares to address supply constraints,” said Ares Partner and Co-President Blair Jacobson.
CPPIB Senior Managing Director & Global Head of Real Assets Max Biagosch noted how the fund’s goal was important following the data center demand in the Asia Pacific region.
“The demand for data centers in Asia Pacific continues to grow due to the increasing need for data processing and consumption,” said Biagosch
He added, “As one of the largest data center markets in Asia, Japan acts as a key connection point between Asia and North America to facilitate efficient data transfer. The commitment to the Fund will further advance our global data center strategy and deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns for CPP contributors and beneficiaries.
Other large institutional investors for JDC I included Singapore-based global investor GLP Pte Ltd, which was the largest shareholder in GLP International before Ares’ acquisition.
Global data center platform Ada Infrastructure, which Ares acquired during its transaction with GLP, will spearhead the development and operation of the campuses.
